


Gege's Odd Misadventures

by Sailus



Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: /tg/, AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chaos, C’tan, Eldar, F/F, F/M, Inquisitior - Freeform, M/M, Nobledark Imperium, POV Original Female Character, Sisters of Battle, Warhammer 40k - Freeform, assassine, vampire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 10:58:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12680505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sailus/pseuds/Sailus
Summary: In the dark future of the 41st Millennium, there is still hope. Ever fleeting and dying but it still exist in an uncaring and cruel cold galaxy the Imperium is in. Vetren of the Imperial Guard, former Seer of a Maiden world, and Inquisitor of the ruthless Imperial Inquisition. Genevieve will face many dangers as she tours the Imperium trying to delay the 12th Black Crusade.





	1. Introduction

_It is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Eternal Emperor and Empress have been joined in their holy union. He is the last relic of a lost age when hope and wisdom ruled the galaxy, still clinging to his purpose of forging a better future, and she is the last remnant of an ancient pantheon, a mother watching over dying children brought low by their own hubris. Together, they are the Masters and Guardians of Mankind and Eldar, the keepers of the Last Alliance, the embodiment of the Imperium to which a hundred sapient species swear their fealty._

_At the core of the Imperium is Humanity, its teeming multitudes ever resilient, stubbornly carving out a future amongst the hostile stars. The greatest of Man's allies are the Eldar, ancient and wise, their shared bond forged in battle and sealed in blood millennia ago. Since then, others have been judged worthy to join in the light of the Imperium, to stand with Men and Eldar as fellows: the industrious Demiurge, enigmatic Tau, countless strains of Abhumans, and many more._

_Yet for all the Imperium's numbers, it is barely enough to stave off the forces that would tear it down. United under savage Beasts, the Orkish hordes throw themselves at the great edifice of the Imperium. The Necrons are awakening to a changed galaxy, and seethe at the primitives who would dare harbor their greatest foes the Eldar. From the galactic east, the Tyranids have made landfall and sweep over countless worlds in their hungering tide. In the shadows lurk the Dark Eldar, reveling in the carnage of a galaxy at war. And from the Immaterium, the Chaos Gods brood and plot their eternal vengeance, served by the twisted Crone Eldar._

_To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold trillions. It is to live in the last bastion of civilization as the darkness draws near. These are the tales of those times. Forget the stories of peace and harmony, for they are fables of a gentler time, when the world still made sense. Remember the stories of struggle and defiance, full of brotherhood and sacrifice, for those are the ones that really matter. Peace is a distant dream growing ever fainter, and there is only war as Men and Eldar hold the line for the promise that has been whispered through the generations, from father to son, from mother to daughter: that there is good left in the world, and that is worth fighting for._


	2. Close Encounter

_"For every world that exist with advance societies, there also exist a Feral world where technology is seen as magic."_

_\- 2nd Lieutenant Mira, 203rd Cadian Shock Troopers_

+Sub-sector Alt Wald, Ultima Segmentum+

+Feudal world Talabecia, Imperious System+

++5 years before the 12th Black Crusade++

It was a dark and stormy night. The unpolluted soil with clean grass told that the world has yet to achieve industrialization. Genevieve Genth o Alayran had her raven black hair being blown sideways by the violent winds. Adjusting the hair back to behind her shoulders with a quick brush, this allowing her to see the eerie dark castle on the horizon. Wearing a conglomeration of Carapace and Wraithbone armor, the white plates provide a contrast to the black shell. The downpour finally lets up to show twin moons in the night sky. Moonlight reflect to shower the Inquisitor and her retinue as they walk up the ramp to the gatehouse. Genevieve's eyes shimmer green to prepare herself for the hunt. 'Although I had hoped to be better prepare' thought Genevieve then turning to nod at a Securitas Sister to allow her to pass.

There was a motley crew of soldiers and companions trailing the Inquisitor. Some 20 or so Inquisitorial Scions who were veteran Guardsmen were equipped to take on anything short of Astartes. Clad in their gray plates of Cephalon Armor to move more quickly than in Carapace Armor, they marched up in a single file behind Genevieve. "Oi, GeGe! Wait up!" said a beefy looking man as he ran up to catch up to her. This typical appearance of scum might fool other to think he was useless but the Inquisitor saw his talent in improvised explosives. He wore a bowler hat laced with one big razor on the brim and a business vest with a bow-tie. "Late again I see" replied the Inquisitor who now stood one head taller to stare him down. Her eyes could see the unkempt ginger hair sticking out of his hat similar to some hive-ganger.

The name 'GeGe' was originally given to Inquisitor Genevieve Genth by the locals of Nippon with their Low Gothic dialect meaning 'grandfather' or 'old man'. That happened due to the fact she harassed the population for information. "Maybe my blissful ignorance just wants you around as company, " told Genevieve to Hatter. The hive-ganger was discovered on the Hive world of Birmingham with only the alias being given was 'Hatter'. He was known for slicing people's faces by throwing his hat around and being a bomb-maker. The red robes of Martian sand introduce the Mordian Bio-Priest with many tendrils. All of the exterior for that woman from the neck down must have been metal or at least reinforced in such a manner. This Bio-Priest had naturally growing blond hair although this is questionable considering how much she tampered with her own DNA. One might not be able to tell she was a cybrid due to her realistic imitation skin except for the fact extra mechanical limbs were sticking out of her back.

"Adalheid?" Genevieve said to her Bio-Priest. "Ye, Inquisitor?" came back the synthetic voice that has the hollow tone of something almost alive. "Lend me your thermal sight to give me the location of our target" Genevieve then turn to look behind to tell Sargent Odicar "Safeties off when we walk pass this building". The Bio-Priest made some quick scans with her enhance optics to spot all the fires and living bodies inside the castle. "Some lit torches, one fireplace in the dining hall, and two organics by said fireplace," told Adalheid. "Two?" Genevieve was perplexed by the count but it was hard to tell. Their targets didn't exactly have souls thus leaving no Warp presence for Genevieve to detect. There were the faintest signs of a mortal life before it vanished completely in the dinning hall.

"Scions, advance first to sweep and clear the entire ground floor,"

"Yes, my Lady"

"Adalheid, follow them"

Running the Iron Discipline program for two seconds to say "Jawol!"

"Hatter, with me. We need to check our equipment one last time."

"Coming, Boss!"

They check their bags to take stock of what they need for the fight. Nestled deep in the bag were Krak grenades then frag grenades on top of that and finally acid bombs. Hatter took the acid bombs while Genevieve held the Krak grenades.

"Don't we usually have more than this, Hatter?"

"Sorry, Boss. Unless we want to turn into fried chips, I advise not stuffing too many explosives inside any one bag or case."

"I see" Now the Genevieve remember the lack of explosives she carried back when she served in the 2nd Moloch Campaign compare to the present. Being the Seer for a Warhost means she didn't really have anything beside her psyker powers and a melee weapon. Rather limited in resources, the Maiden world Warhost went on suicidal missions to delay the Hive Fleet. The eyes of the Inquisitor fell to see Genevieve as a possible acolyte after the war. Just before she fell into obscurity on the Path of the Enforcer, this mentor took her away from Alayran to eventually make her an Inquisitor.

The Scions cleared each room as they made their way to the dining hall. Then they saw the pair, just waiting for them to attack them. One was sitting in a large wooden chair cover in knight's plate armor whilst another was a simple maid who stood next to the count. Their eyes glow green in the pure darkness that covers their heads to prevent a good look at the faces. The Inquisitor slam the door open to grab the attention of the two then saying "Grand Count von Holstein, your reign of terror has come to an end!" The vampire responds with just a sip of wine from his cup then "I have more than ruled with fairness, don't exaggerate your vilification." The ganger walk up from the group to ask the count "How many people did you killed to drink their blood?" Holstein answer coldly with "How many cups of recaf did you drink in your life?"

Understandably, most of the Inquisitor's retinue was shocked by such a statement. Genevieve and Hatter drew their weapons while the Scions prepare to fire. Standing up from his seat, the count was too menacing to ignore leading to the Inquisitor to order fire on him. The maid ran away from the count's seat to leap at the nearest Scion. She sank her teeth right through the Flak fabric around the Scion's neck. Her claws shred the Cephalon Armor like it was paper to reduce the victim to a bloody mess. The Scions fired their Hellguns to rip chunks off of the maid's body as she was feeding. Reacting in fear, the maid made her way up the wall using her overgrown claws to climb up to the ceiling.

Holstein moves to strike with his sword by trying to stab Genevieve which was parried by the Inquisitor's blade. Both combatants went back and forth as Hatter sometimes shot his Las-pistol at the count. Seeing an opening in Holstein's defenses, the Inquisitor press her attack to drive him back to a wall then jump back suddenly. The count was confused by such a move but there were Krak grenades headed right at him. Careful not to detonate one, Holstein deflected one grenade using his sword to cause it to explode behind him. Smoke and the shock wave from the wall behind Holstein propel him forward right into another grenade. This one connected with its intended target and explode in the middle of Holstein's breastplate. He said "That was close" as his internals hang out from the huge hole in his torso just missing his heart.

Even for the immortal predatory race like von Holstein and his kindred, things such as being blown to bits are rather painful. Sure it wouldn't kill the vampires but the whole process is something most try to avoid. This was being done by the one maid as she dodges fire from the Scions while crawling around on the ceiling. Adalheid had enough of this fooling around to kill a maid and brought out her Las-cannon. One Scion helps her as they attach the weapon to the Bio-Priest's stomach then prepare to fire. Adalheid began firing to slice apart the ceiling then hopefully bring the entire thing down over time. Beams of Las tore open the building like some wound, readying to force the maid down from her clinging. The maid had suddenly fallen from the ceiling to crouch low on the floor, without warning, she leaps to Adalheid's stomach and started to rip the Las-cannon to bits. This would normally be a matter of concern for the Bio-Priest if not for the fact she turned off her pain receptors.

The inhumane amount of pain received by Holstein had rallied him to concentrate on killing the Inquisitor at all cost. With a flurry of blows, he attacked Genevieve without a care for in the world. Using one slip-up from the count, the Inquisitor had punched him square in his nose. Her left fist was glowing yellow with electrical sparks flying off of it when it connected with Holstein's face. The attack was only for a second but the vampire's nose had fallen off after Genevieve withdrew her fist. Unable to understand what was happening, Holstein ask "How is this possible? Just a mere punch was able to deform me, I, an immortal." By this time the vampire had backed away from the Eldar when she was showing off her left hand. Genevieve sheath her sword when she said "Allow me to explain."

"You see, on the pastoral world of Ungolia, there live Human psykers who manage to harness solar energy to act as a healing power using a breathing technique."

"That makes no sense!"

"I'm not done! As I was saying, this breathing technique is known as 'Heliomancy', with Heliomancy I was able to learn that this transferring of solar energies directly into a vampire's body was lethal."

"You don't mean..."

"Oh yes, I'm sure both of us know what I will say next. By sending a direct surge of solar radiation through a vampire's body, I am able to cause your C'tan shard or Silver to be hyperactive then cause cellular degeneration faster than your body can regenerate."

"That's not this works, that's not how any of this works!"

"If it works and it's stupid than it's not stupid."

Meanwhile, Adalheid was being ripped apart by the angry maid with the only bloodlust in her eyes. The Bio-Priest asked "What is your name?" as she was being disemboweled. "Lisbet," told the vampire as she kept ripping out tubes and wiring from Adalheid. "Thank you" were the only words from Adalheid as the Mordian held the maid by the neck with just a left hand then sent the vampire flying back as the left hand detach from the arm via rocket. Shock wearing off for Lisbet, she quickly set to work chewing apart the hand that pinned her to the wall. Adalheid in the meantime had attached a Las-carbine to her left arm then start shooting the pinned vampire while advancing to finish her off. Lisbet had torn the hand to ribbons when she ready her attack on Adalheid. The Bio-Priest was more than prepared when Lisbet jumped at her.

Where there was fear in Holstein's eyes when Genevieve press her attack to tear the count apart. With some 300 years of experience in swordsmanship, Holstein was no amateur. It should come as no surprise when he keeps slipping away from a fatal blow when the Eldar was ready to deliver it. Leaving himself vulnerable for a stab, he drew in the Inquisitor to overextend her attack. Using just this chance, Holstein shot out one last trick from his eyes. Lahmian vampires have this one thing they can do that no other bloodline can do, essence beams of pure decay can be shot out of their eyes as a last resort weapon. This move is pretty draining on the vampire but it known to be able to slice open bunkers. Here in this instance, Holstein did shoot out essence beams to hit Genevieve in her right arm as he dodges.

Dropping her sword in pain, the Inquisitor was in no condition to hold a weapon as her right arm had two huge holes through it. The wraithbone bone armor did little to nothing in providing protection against the essence beams showing the true power of it eating through bone and flesh. Holstein brought his left hand to hold Genevieve in place by holding her face then slamming her to the floor. Just to make sure she couldn't move he stomp on her a few times to get her firmly stuck in the wooden planks. Suddenly there was a razor slicing the cheek of Holstein to turn his smile upside down. The sharp intrusion was made by the bowler hat laced with a razor on the brim which was thrown by Hatter. In anger, Holstein shot out more essence beams to kill Hatter by hitting him right in his neck. Before he could die, however, Hatter threw his two acid bombs when life left him and he was turned into a blood fountain.

Holstein could only knock away one of the bombs when the other explode in his face. Stumbling back from the impact, the count wanted to stay far from those painful things allowing Genevieve to get up from the floor. The vampire had covered his eyes with his left hand while wielding a sword with his right. The Eldar charged her legs with Heliomancy to give deadly kicks that Holstein fend off with his sword. Sparks flew off of the weapon and Carapace greaves as they made contact to try to destroy each other. Finally, the Inquisitor brought in a round-house kick to hit Holstein in his head from his left but the attack was blocked by the vampire's left hand grabbing Genevieve's foot. Although not connecting with the intended target, the kick still caused the count's fingers on his left hand to fall off from the arm along with frying the arm's never system. "What!" came from Genevieve as she expected Holstein to be blind for a while more from the acid burning his eyes. To her surprise, Holstein had perfectly normal eyes for a child of the night.

"Silly mortal, you don't think that acid trick would work on the likes of me?"

"Well yes, I was depending on it blinding you,"

"I have fought in more Errantry Wars than you can count, shed enough blood to make a battlefield slippery, and dodged more arrows than you can imagine. It should come as not a surprise when I have honed my reflexes to such an extent that I can catch the acid before it can touch my face."

"That explains a lot."

"Ah, your friend's effort were in vain I see."

Laughing to mock the Inquisitor more, Holstein was enjoying this encounter. It had been a few decades since he had really flex his skills like this. Genevieve came at him again but this time used Heliomancy to conduct blinding lights to emit from her eyes. It was such an overwhelming amount that Holstein had to block out the light using his finger-less left hand. Creating this opening, the Eldar attack with a hand chop to rip Holstein's right arm off. The sparking Helio hand caused rapid disintegration for the vampire's arm on the floor. Shining light had engulfed the arm as it was melting from the Silver destroying cells when it tried to drain all life from everything the solar radiation touched. Holstein retaliates with slashes of his sword but Genevieve kept dodging the spiteful strikes.

Back with Adalheid, she saw Lisbet attack her by leaping at her. It was clear Lisbet was aiming for the neck when the Bio-Priest ejects her Las-cannon and advance at her with a Las-carbine. In midair, with fangs showing and claws were drawn, Lisbet was caught by metal tendrils from behind Adalheid's hood. "What witchcraft is this!?" shouted Lisbet as she struggled to break free from the odd limbs. Running the anger program for just a few seconds when Adalheid said "Enough games!" as she held Lisbet by the neck with her right hand. Both the fingers and tendrils dug into Lisbet's flesh to prevent any attempts of freeing herself. Firmly being stuck under the Bio-Priest's thumb, Lisbet was slammed into the floor before being stab with a steak into her heart. This steak however shot out UV lasbolts from the tip to cause critical heart failure for whatever vampire receiving this death.

Holstein's attacks were a flurry of stab or slashes but it matters not when Genevieve held the advantage. Pushing too much forward, Holstein left himself off balance when the Inquisitor grab his blade. Her gloves were more than thick enough to safely hold the weapon as she pulled the sword toward her while closing in with Holstein. Using quick thinking, the vampire tried to bite the Eldar in the neck but Genevieve countered this by headbutting Holstein in the face. Knocking some fangs out, the Inquisitor was able to bring her leg around to kick out Holstein's legs from under him. Falling to the floor Holstein extended his claws to punch through Genevieve's Carapace plates to stab at her stomach. Even with the crippling pain, the Eldar channeled the last of her energies to her left fist to deliver the lethal blow. Smashing the vampire's head like a fruit, she was able to cause overwhelming amounts of solar radiation to be sent all throughout the count's body to cause exponential disintegration.

Lisbet was thrashing around in vain to live but the UV lasbolts made sure she died. Burning their way into the heart of the vampire, it was causing all sorts of melting much faster than normal daylight. Showing her true form, Lisbet became a bat thing with pointed ears, deform nose, overgrown claws, huge fangs, and deep glowing green eyes. The stake had made the C'tan shard stuck inside the heart to react abnormally to where it started eating the host's heart. Even the immortal vampires can't live if their own bodies self-destruct. Using the last of her strength, Lisbet was able to see her own beating heart stop beating as Adalheid drove the steak deeper just to make sure. Genevieve walked up to the Bio-Priest to check her kill.

"Are you all done her Adalheid?"

"Affirmative, secondary target was eliminated,"

"You know, I should bury Hatter's body back in his home world,"

"He didn't care for his death, this is coming from a Death worlder."

"Yes, I should ponder on that but for now," Genevieve turn to her Scions "Get the flamers! I want to ensure these corpses remain corpses!"


	3. Weird Age

" _Adapt, evolve, survive._ "

-  _Imperial Army proverb_

+Sub-sector Alt Wald, Ultima Segmentum+

+Hive world Zhong, Imperious System+

++5 years prior to the 12th Black Crusade++

"How did he find my ship?" Genevieve was perplexed with the Men who were camping out the main docking entrance to the frigate. They wore uniforms of Zhong government employment and it was clear they were not just dock workers. One of these Zhongese campers ran up to bow on the floor of the docking station which almost made Genevieve draw her sword in reflex.

"I beg to be able to seek an audience with you Lady Inquisitor. There is an urgent message that must be delivered from the world governor's lips to your ears!" Told the Zhongese messenger in a rush of words overflowing out of his mouth.

"Stay your nerves first of all, then follow me inside the void ship," said the Inquisitor while helping him up then escorting him into the ship. "None of the others Zhongese may enter the ship or camp out here, clear them out Sargent Odicar" ordered the Eldar.

The small frigate had refueling tubes connecting the lower hull of the ship. It had only stopped by the orbital void station over Zhong to resupply before move out of the system. The hull was painted pitch black with red coloring for the cannon batteries and ram. Large orange letters in Low Gothic spell out Isha's Poison on the side of the hull. "What is your name?" asked Genevieve to get the answer "Pai Yi". When walking to the doors to enter, Pai gave a curious look at the name of the ship but spoke nothing as he kept fearful silence.

"Are you wondering about the name?" the Inquisitor asking while knowing the reply.

"Why, I was just thinking about the odd use of the Empress's name that is all."

"Without context, the naming would seem rather… odd. It so happens that this is not an insult to the goddess."

"Oh, by the Emperor, that's a relief."

"Hey, don't swear using the Emperor like a god or I'll line you up in front of a firing squad. Remember, the Lex Deus Imperator still apply to every citizen."

"Please forgive me! It was just a slip of the tongue, you see we Zhongese don't actual worship the Emperor. We just see Him as uh… a saint, no that's not right, more like a mythical hero who happens to still be alive. The Emperor is venerated just like our Zhongese ancestors and there is no worship there."

"If you say so, now where was I? Yes, the context is that although Isha is our mother goddess there have been times when her fury destroyed whole fleets. Examples such as the Warpstorm Imperial Wrath devouring the loyalist fleet sent to stop Inquisitor Thor during the Imperial Civil War. Another was during the War of The Beast where she kept healing troops on Old Terra to help kill tens of thousands of Orks."

"I still don't know why poison is in the name."

"Well is it not true that the only difference between medicine and poison is dosage?"

Contemplating on the naming, Pai was deep in though as he made way to a meeting room via a lift. There was a nalwood table with the walls hanging paintings that depict the 2nd Moloch Campaign.

"What are all these pictures about, it looks like they tell one story," said Pai.

Turning away from Pai to brush the frame of a painting with her fingertips, Genevieve told "They are to remind me of my past when I wanted to go adventuring as a warrior".

Shifting a little in his seat, the Zhongese was nervous to ask "So, did you fought against extra-galactic Xenos?"

Genevieve suddenly twirls around to take a seat facing Pai then said "Yes, the Tyranids brought me back to realism then became my reality". The Inquisitor threw her hands into the air while saying "You didn't come here to listen to my old war stories. Let's get down to the matter at hand, what is this oh so urgent message I must hear?"

"Do you know that Zhong is stuck with a rebellion for the past 200 years?"

"Oh yes I know, a surprising turn of events where the PDF can't defeat such a pathetic threat. I've heard the stories and read up on your world."

"The thing is the warlord leading the rebels has killed the last two governors."

"What of it? I can't be the governor's personal bodyguard, I have more important affairs to attend to." Genevieve used enough confidence to bluff Pai when in truth she didn't have anything better to do.

"The governor is asking nothing like that my lady, he just want you to investigate the warlord's true identity."

"Why should that person's life mean anything to me?"

"This warlord is known as Xin the Merciless, she is a woman that look to be in her 30's and might be a former Guardsmen. Almost 200 years ago she started this rebellion on the outskirts of a hive-city then went on to kill two governors and ravage the lands outside of the hives. What is scary about her is her age is more than 150 years old with no signs of rejuvenate treatments or the ability to access them."

"Impossible! A human should be dead by 150 if they don't receive those treatments."

"Not to mention it has been 197 years and Xin still appears to be 30. Either she has the Empress' blessing, which I highly doubt, or a darker power is at work to keep her alive."

"What makes the governor suspect a sinister force is behind this?"

"There have been clear evidence that some of the rebels are Chaos worshipers. From the markings on their bodies to mutations, even the eight-pointed star on the equipment or skin. There are too many things pointing to at least a minority of the rebels has unholy assistance."

The Inquisitor though about the situation that laid before her. Presented with the option to leave the world behind and let the PDF deal with Xin was not something she would do. With her duty as both Eldar and Inquisitor, she felt it was a necessity that she should at least investigate this Xin character. If possible, kill Xin and destroy her rebellion afterward. Swerving her head to look at Adalheid to the right of her, Genevieve ask "What are your thoughts on this?" The Bio-Priest was processing the data from the cameras tracking the Scions shoving and pushing the Zhongese away from the door. The question forced Adalheid to store the pic stream as a secondary priority as she played back the question to calculate something to say. Finally, come up with "There is something that is not Chaos but has just as nefarious motives while granting immortality".

"Indeed, I understand what you are trying to say, be convey," said Genevieve as she stood up from her chair. Pai was again scared to talk yet must do so in the governor's service. "What may I ask was conveyed?" told Pai to both the people in the room. Quickly frowning by what was just said, Genevieve made sure to show the Zhongese that outsiders shouldn't be too curious in the presence of an Inquisitor. "Classified," told Genevieve in a stern voice then said in a soft tone "Anyway, these things shouldn't be a concern for you nor should they be fitting for your ears." The Eldar put a hand on Pai's back to lead him out of the ship wanting to rush expelling him. When the messenger was well off of the void ship, Genevieve told Adalheid to "Recall the Scions back inside to refit for deployment." Sargent Odicar was starting to enjoy stomping on the tents set up by the doors when he got the orders over vox.

"Column formation facing my zero" ordered Odicar to his squad, they formed up in a single file line behind Odicar to look at his back. With unsung unison, they all marched into the doors in lockstep without a sound. The Scion Tempestus are the elite of the elite, even better than the Imperial Guard's Stormtroopers and they would act as such. The Flak fabric was rubbing Odicar's skin too much when he got to work putting on his plates. Normally, when accompanying the Inquisitor while not deployed on a mission, these Scions only wore Flak fabric as armor. Although now they weren't on a mission yet Genevieve still ordered the Scions to put on their Flak plates. There was no reason to since the Inquisitor was just going to talk to a few locals but Odicar didn't question his orders. Surely, a Seer working for the Inquisition must know more than him.

"I have no idea what to do," said Genevieve when she stepped out of her shuttle to the thick smoggy air of Hive city Manchuguo. Adalheid told the Seer "It is best not to make such statements in front of subordinates. This is to prevent depletion in morale by my data sample". The Eldar said back "Thank you for your easy wisdom Bio-Priest" then made her way to the Level 149 Manchu State Library. The Inquisitor noticed that the roads within the hive cities were odd compared to other cities. The four street intersections were octagon shaped to let vehicles turn wider and force invaders to be funneled into the tighter streets. The alley ways had multiple firing angles from the windows or slits to allow anybody walking down to be shot from every direction above them. Coughing due to the oppressive gas, Genevieve was the only one without an air filter while the Scions had them inside their helmet and Adalheid had a filter built in her neck.

Even with the overwhelming amount of people flooding the streets, the inquisitorial group found their way without getting lost on the first try. The library was an enormous building that was the size of an Imperial world stadium stacked on top of another stadium. There was a bottomless hole near the building, it connected from the top of the hive city that could fit a few Argi world homes which let daylight to bounce into the city. Plastmirrors on the wall of the holes channeled lights from all levels of the city, the light is then reflected across the entire city. Daylight shining off of the holes makes it almost impossible for hovercrafts to descend down them from outside of the city without blinding the pilots, not to mention anybody can shoot down the hovercrafts if it is moving too slow. If a hole were to ever collapse, at most only a 100 people might die because most of the debris would just fall to hit the bedrock of the city where nobody lives.

Banners and flags of the Galactia Imperium, which a had a yellow background behind the double-headed eagle, flutter, and wave from a quick burst of air. Ventilation shafts or pipes let out a rumble to tell people that another gust was heading to level 149. The tiles on the roof form a curvy upside down "V" with red stone beams holding up the entrance. Walls for the library were thick enough to protect against artillery shells. It looked like the ancient Terran design for "Ching" buildings but as a bunker. The Inquisitor made her way to the "planetary history" section of books and records. There were pic recordings, books, and phonic copies lined up all along the wall or stands. Countless servitors fly and shamble about working tirelessly to help find things for the visitors. Genevieve called one over with "I require assistance, servitor!"

One helper servitor came over as fast as it could on it's wheels. The legs of the helper were entirely replaced with a platform to hold up the torso with wheels attached. Even if the boxy platform seems useless other than keeping the lower spine in place, Genevieve could see the nutrent fluid and chemical tubs pumping into the torso. "How may I help you?" said the living husk when it finally rolled over, it was a man once before being turned. "Give me all material on this 'Xin the Merciless'" ordered the Eldar. Pausing for a moment, the servitor asked "Can you confirm that you wish to access all material on a subject within this section". The answer came back with a fast "Yes" from Genevieve. "It appeared to be another one of our sponge sessions, my lady?" said Adalheid and Genevieve only replied with a nod.

Quickly rushing off to get the information, the helper got to the controls of a grabber claw machine hanging sideways on a bookshelf. It set to work using the claw to pull out books from the top ranks down to its arms then placing them on a table. This went on for at least 20 minutes until it went over to get the pic recordings. Genevieve told Odicar to "Follow it then bring the everything back here, we'll find somewhere to place them". The Sargent saluted saying "Understood" then ordered, "Hadrian, with me, everybody else stay with the Inquisitor". He walked off to do his job as basically being an errand boy rather than be a bodyguard. Now both Genevieve and Adalheid had the time-consuming work of reading through all this text. Scions then started to form a circle around both of them for protection against any would-be disruptors.

Both of the females started to go through a mountain of books for any mention of Xin. Then Genevieve's mind rushes to a weird sight of the very same place where she was sitting at. Her peripheral view was cloudy with darkness and the vision was dangling from above the group. Everything was unclear as if seeing through water. She hears and sees a clumsy reader falling over to drop everything to the floor. That had made everybody, except for Adalheid, look over at the fallen reader. Right in that moment, the Eldar felt a spike of pain in all of her head and saw how herself being killed. She had been shot in the head by an assassin, who had drawn a stubber pistol from inside a hollowed out book. By the time the Scions reacted to shoot at the fleeing assassin, Genevieve's brain was already blown out.

Climbing back out of the trance, Adalheid asked "Are you doing well, Inquisitor?" Genevieve nodded and said "Just a vision, nothing to worry about. Also don't ask about it, the vision as only a small hint to help the investigation". Saying "As you wish, my lady" Adalheid went back to scan the text for more data. There was a book on the accounts of both military and civilian on the beginning of Xin's rebellion. At the time, Xin was just a preacher who spread anti-governmental speech and owned a scrap shop where spear parts or metal was sold. Little to nothing is known about her life before she bought the scrap shop from the previous owner. What little was known is that how she organized her forces and handled all sorts of weapons seem to tell a tale of a former soldier.

Telling a Scion "Get me purecaff, none of the recaff trash" Genevieve wanted to be faster in reading as many pages as she could. The man jogged off while she went back to understanding more about Xin. Due to somebody changing data in the hive city's log, Xin's shop was to be closed down immediately as the logs clearly state that the shop should exist on the other side of the city. At that time Xin had managed to create a small following in the district she lived in. Thus when the enforcers came to arrest Xin for not closing her shop, her followers killed the enforcers. It became a full-scale riot where she fanned the flames of anarchy to topple the planetary government. All of level 100 and 101, which were right at ground level, were no longer under control. The rioters could effectively starve some 800 million if they wanted to as they held the only land entrance for food imports.

The under-hive was underground and knew almost nothing about what was happening on the ground levels. People from level 99 suddenly couldn't reach the surface when the rioters shut down the lifts and hover lanes for some reason. At first, Xin formed a group know as the Red Armbands who wore red armbands to identify each other and wished nothing more than Zhong's independence the Imperium. The Red Armbands saw that the Imperium is a hegemonic empire which reneged the promise of a safer and prosperous galaxy. To them, the Imperium was using both economic and military control to enforce permanent membership. "At least these rebel scum is right about the permanent membership" Genevieve though to herself. The group had taken over the exits and entrances on the ground level of 100 to make sure all other levels starve for a bit. With the trams of food imports being blocked or hijacked by Red Armbands, some tried to sneak in food from the outlying farms.

Yet even this was halted as they started taking farms outside of the hive city. After a few days the Red Armbands opened up recruitment to everybody willing to join and all Red Armbands were given weekly rations. Starving citizens quickly flock to the Red Armbands as they fear a slow death or ran out of food. Raiding the enforcer and PDF armories to loot weapons, the Red Armbands launched an attacking on level 103, 104, and 105 at the same time. Seeing that the simple riot was growing to a rebellion, the PDF from level 199 to 150, guarding the upper-hive, were sent down to crush the rebels. It was clear that the enforcers and the soldiers in the attacked levels couldn't handle the Red Armbands, what with the rebels climbing out of the pipes and vents. They were literally crawling everywhere when the upper-hive PDF arrived just in time to relive the three levels. So numerous were the Red Armbands that when faced with 52 PDF divisions totaling around 26.000.000, the rebels outnumbered it 3 to 1.

The very nature of the hive city made is hard for either side to gain much territory. When the fighting had bogged down to a few months in a stalemate. It was the arrive of some 50 PDF divisions numbering 20.000.000 from hive city Beiking that changed the tide of battle. First, the Beiking PDF army group headed to the closest parts of the Manchuguo to attack the southern gates of level 100. Then 25 under-hive PDF divisions climbed their way up to invade the surface and link up with the Beiking PDF. Stretched thin as they were, the Red Armbands secede floors on the upper front while holding off the under-hive PDF and delaying the Beikingese. After 10 months of frustrating conflict, the 2nd Battle of Manchuguo ended with a loyalist victory. However, the Red Armbands were never crushed as s few million fled out of the city using the northern exits to become a guerrilla army with Xin still leading them. This rebel army would kill government officials, bomb building, and raid towns outside of the hive cities for 197 years.

Wanting to gain more insight on how Xin operated, Genevieve dug through more books to find useful information. Out of nowhere, there was the sound of book thundering as they start to hit the floor due to a clumsy reader. The tower of text lay spilled on the floor when the assassin opened his book to take out his stubber. Carefully bending her leg to appear as if she was fixing her boot, Genevieve drew her Shuriken pistol and prepared to fire. The assassin fired first to miss the Eldar for she ducked just in time using her superior reflexes. He was hit multiple times in the torso from Genevieve shooting at him after she rolled toward him. One Scion shot the hand holding the weapon to make sure he was less dangerous. The fingers flew away from the hand when the arm was hit with a lasbolt. Adalheid was scanning the assassin when she remarked "I expected something different from you, my lady".

"What did you expect?"

"How do I put this… a more elegant fighting style"

"We haven't known each other for long, have we? Did you expect me to jump onto my chair then back-flip over the assassin while splitting him in two with my sword? Or maybe jump onto a Scion's head then leap onto the assassin as I fire my pistol. How about launching myself to the bookshelf in front of me to wall run it to reach him then kicking his head in mid-air to subdue him?"

"It is hard to tell for me but I believe there is a detection of sarcasm in your speech pattern"

"Yes, I was being sarcastic! Fighting with the Imperial Guard taught me that elegance when looking at death brings you no favors, in fact, it would most likely kill you."

"Most intriguing, is there more Inquisitor?"

"Growing up with a trader for a father and a warrior mother living right next to the Xenos district sure allowed me to interact with a multitude of races. Seen many humans, some abhumans, and even a Tau once near the trading port. This was what kept my mind open to filter in lessons from humans to change myself"

"My analysis shows he will not bleed out, surprisingly. How should we proceed with him?"

"Looks like the ship's prison cell won't be empty today"


	4. Fanatic

_"When there is a lack of faith in religion, the next best thing is to manipulate faith in ideology."_

_\- Orders Securitas: Enhanced Interrogation Techniques Manual_

The electro-torches offer little to no lighting for most of the interrogation cell the assassin was in. Much so copying the rest of the ship, the metals walls were anything but thin. His hands were tied behind his back as he sat on a lone chair in the almost empty room. The only other person present was Inquisitor Genevieve who was standing to look at the drooling assassin. He had on a brown trench coat, black boots, and a tie to appear as somebody far from being a Temple Assassin. No, just a hired gun who was closer to a murderous hobo than the killers bred and trained for a single purpose. Sargent Odicar and Adalheid was watching from outside the cell through a periglass window. The window from inside the cell looked like just another part of the wall due to the metallic paint.

Being brought to the cell with a bag covering his head, Genevieve prepared him for interrogation by inducing him into a low-level coma with drugs beforehand. Stretching both her physical and psyker muscles, the Inquisitor place her open palm on the forehead of the assassin. The two onlookers outside were ready to burst into the room if something unexpected happens. The Seer was probing the assassin's mind to try to find his consciousness buried under the unconsciousness. A few seconds later the entire conscious part of his mind was laid out right in front Genevieve. Trying to enter the memory first, the Eldar was quickly and painfully expunged from the consciousness. 'What the Warp is going on?' asking nobody when she got kicked out by a non-psyker. 'Must be some sort of unconscious defensive means, so I must be questioning if this is natural or taught' thinking to herself.

One moment was all it took for Genevieve to come up with a rather blunt plan. Gathering her mind to act as a battering ram, she smashed pass the unconscious defense to break into the mind as quickly as possible. The defense was weakly trying to reform itself while the Inquisitor spread herself out to cover the memories of the assassin. Skimming over the past to find out his name was Sima Lee, Genevieve went to working shuffling through the useless memories to get to the time Lee became an assassin. Calling himself Liu Mao when dealing with all his clients, it translated to 'Green Cat' but Genevieve didn't know why green was in the name. 'I believe his stubber was green yet nothing else was similar' thinking to herself. Thinking 'Snatched you!' as she looked over the more recent memory of being hired by the Red Armbands to kill her. 'I wasn't even on planetside when they-' the thought was cut off as the defense sinking its metaphorical claws into Genevieve to throw her out of the consciousness.

Retracting her hand from the drooling assassin, the Eldar made her way out of the cell to discuss her findings with the other two. Her mind still feels like pins had stabbed it every time the defense dragged her out of Liu's memories. Rubbing her forehead from the pain, Adalheid asks her "Your pain receptors are active yet I detect no physical damage that would set it off". Waving a hand to dismiss the Bio-Priest's fear was Odicar saying "Don't fret, seen this before when the Lady Inquisitor interrogated a witch. That one seems much more painful and she recovered a few hours later". "Odicar is right, I'll be fine, just let me have a moment to catch my breath," said Genevieve. Gulping in air to stabilize her body, the Inquisitor had to keep the mask of strength before her subordinates. "His name is Sima Lee but uses the alias Liu Mao when acting as an assassin," told Genevieve to Adalheid "Look up his movements within the last 72 hours".

"Anything to take notes when on my search?"

"From his memory, there was clear sky where he was hired to kill me, so track down places that he stops by on the outskirts of the Hive city or one of the farm towns."

"I will begin interfacing with a cogitator immediate, " said Adalheid as she ran off to open restricted pic recordings of Liu from the Manchuguo Enforcer Record Keep. Not even needing to slice open the machine-spirits of the Record Keep, the simple Inquisitorial authority being waved around did more than enough work. 'Avoidance of defiling Imperial machine-spirits are preferable, thank you Ordo Securitas' the Bio-Priest was thinking to herself. First, she looked up the name Sima Lee to find his address, then track his movements from there on. After what seem like hours of watching the pic recordings, which it was, she finally noticed only one place Liu went outside of the Hive city in the last three Terran days. Thanks to built-in cogitators near her spine, Adalheid could fast forward through most of the footage without missing any details. That's why she could pause several microseconds after there was a frame of Liu arrive at a farm town. Further tracing down the location to a town known as Yangshwai near a river, ten or twenty kilometers just south of Manchuguo.

"Can love bl-" this saying from Genevieve was interrupted by Adalheid shuffling into the personal quarters. The Inquisitor kept the room doors unlocked when she was reading a human novel to pass the time waiting for Adalheid. Those from a Craftworld would enjoy fine opera or Exodite worlders might meditate in their free time but not Maiden worlders. They have some of the most contacts with Xenos leading to like some human entertainment and exotic food. With that in mind, Genevieve was panicking while she forcefully closed her book to shove it somewhere hidden from Adalheid. "I see that you are done?" said the Eldar in a regal tone she was faking. Hoping to cover her surprise program that ran for a second under a calm voice, Adalheid said "His last dealing was within 48 hours in the town of Yangshwai, my lady". Getting up from her seat, Genevieve said "Then let us be away! Prepare the voidcraft and Odicar squad for departure within the hour.

The voidcraft rock back and forth when it descends down planetside as fast as it could. Evidence was running cold and information was drying up the longer they took to get there. The transport wasn't graceful as it shot down towards the ground, yet it had a rustic charm to it that Genevieve liked. Sort of like a cradle moving, except if this voidcraft shakes too much, it can rip in half sending the passengers plummeting to their deaths. From outside the transteel window, she could see the approaching farm town coming into view.

The transport was arriving just north of the landing zone, low and fast to avoid flak or targeting fire. It shot to pass the LZ to cut the speed then made a hard turn to face the LZ while lowering more of its speed. Stopping right outside of the town, the townsfolk ran inside their buildings in fear. The voidcraft was hovering gently less than a meter off the ground when it opened its doors. Everybody jumped off the transport right away to secure the area while the transport flew away back to Isha's Poison. True enough to the name, there was a yellow river slicing the town in half. It was more of an orange color but that was a subjective matter, what was not subjective however is that almost all of the streets were totally emptied out with the arrive of the Inquisitor. Odicar broke the silence with "Nobody expects the Inquisition but how come they did? For all they know, the transport could have belonged to a guild or a noble".

"We did not paint the Inquisitorial Rosetta on the voidcraft, correct?" said Adalheid.

"I'm not that unintelligent as to announce myself before arriving, we are Ordo Securitas, nobody should ever expect us to come to this backwater town," told Genevieve.

Odicar said "Either the townsfolk practice hiding, which is unsurprising since the 200-year war thing or word got out we were coming"

The wind was blowing hard and the sun was at its zenith to batter down the heat on the Eldar when she said "Always plan for the worst, in this timeline, that would be the latter and we are walking into a trap". Seeing parked hovercrafts in the streets, stalls cover the sidewalks, and carts everywhere led to her saying "Find cover then get behind it when the shooting start".

Adalheid asks "There is certainty in your voice that information-gathering will become more complicated as we go on".

"Yes, it is not the question of if, but a matter of when."

Odicar was chuckling while he whispered "Domina Vult" but loud enough for Genevieve to hear. "Indeed" saying the Inquisitor as she walks down the main street to the town square. There was a peaceful landscape of rice patties that littered the outskirts of Yangshwai. Having farmers and all, the food produced planetside was never enough to feed everybody on the Hive world but it did cut down off-world food imports. With the natural minerals found on Zhong mixing with the water, it led to many rivers, lakes, and streams having a yellow or orange tine. Although larger bodies of water like seas or oceans didn't have the same coloring as these minerals are found deeper inland. A few people had sometimes peeked out of their windows and door when they thought the Inquisitorial retinue walked passed them. Others, however, boldly came out of a tavern near the town hall.

"Well look at here guys, an Inquisitor graces us with her presence," said the man wearing a Cadian Foot Trooper flak armor. It pretty much had all the standard flak plates on his arms and knees while there was a plate only covering his upper torso and a round helmet. What was not standard was the pink symbol of Slaanesh on his right shoulder pauldron, a black eight-pointed star of Chaos on the breastplate, and the jarring metallic silver paint job. "Traitor Guardsman, do you know who hired the assassin to kill me?" asked Genevieve and not expecting an answer. The sunlight shining off of the flak armor made her eyes hurt just looking at it. "Your looking at him," told the Traitor Guardsman.

"Never send somebody else to do a job when you can do better" the Traitor Guardsman was shaking his head as he said it. Hovering his hand over his holster, it was clear the Traitor Guardsman was preparing to shoot with his Las-pistol. Genevieve did the same thing as her finger ready to touch the Shuriken pistol. Adalheid took out her Las-carbine and the Scions were aiming at him. If the Inquisitor was hit in the head by a lasbolt, not only will it destroy her brain like a stubber round, but it would also pop her skull like a melon. "I have the blessing of the Dark Goddess for speed you know" announced the confident Traitor Guardsmen. "Whilst I was born with Eldar reflexes, cultist!" fired back Genevieve. One of them will hit the other first, yet the Seer couldn't divine which one might be laying dead.

Genevieve and the Traitor Guardsman, both of them stood completely still to stare each other. Staying 30 meters from each, the Eldar felt like she was right in front of him, face-to-face. Sweat was dripping from the traitor's forehead due to the celestial heat pounding down on him. One strong gust of wind picked some leaves up to blow them across the middle of the staring contest. Genevieve was so focused that she could hear the flak plates rub on the fabric of the armor, every time the traitor breathed in or out. "I've learned a lot from Golden Groxwranglers when I fought with them" the former Guardsman broke the long silence. "What would that be?" Genevieve was asking.

"How to quickdraw!" yelled the Traitor Guardsman as he pulled his weapon out. Firing three shots from the hip to hit the Inquisitor. Knowing that she would be hit no matter what, Genevieve was planning on dodging to her left. It sort of worked out when she was twirling, the lowest lasbolt hit her wraithbone neck guard while the middle shot grazed her right ear and highest one totally missed. She was grateful for the fact a lasbolt didn't turn her into a bloody corpse and hated being shot in the ear. Gritting in pain, she took out her pistol to shoot from the hip to slice his face into an unidentifiable mess. As soon as the dead traitor's body hit the ground, windows and doors burst open to have stubbers poking out of the tavern. "Oh, Warpshit!" shouted Odicar as he dove behind a parked hovercraft.

Genevieve fell to the ground in agony, clutching her wounded ear. Normally, these things like being shot through the arm, twice, didn't incur that much reaction from an Eldar. This is where they keep a straight face using their psyker war mask to only express fury and bloodlust when in combat. All other feelings such as compassion and empathy are suppressed. The problem with an Eldar becoming an Inquisitor is that a war mask is detrimental in an investigation. Without the war mask, however, Genevieve was absorbing then expressing all the pain that was inflicted upon her. Again, being grazed shouldn't have that much of a reaction from the Inquisitor. That is not taking into account Eldar ears, tongue, soles, and fingertips are the most over sensitive parts of their body, resulting in excruciating suffering when hurt.

The Eldar fell low just screaming her lungs out then morphing to incoherent words and almost getting shot. Stray rounds landed close to her but the traitors were more concern about killing the Scions who were firing back. Adalheid had to pull Genevieve by her neck guard and move behind some metal carts for cover. One stubber round tore through the right shoulder to hit some unimportant wiring inside and another got stuck in her right metal thigh. As sure as sure can be, the Inquisitorial retinue was pinned down. The traitors planned to turn this street into a kill-zone for whoever walked down it the moment the voidcraft touched down. Some fired at the furthest rear where their targets can retreat, to discourage a retreat, they would shoot them in the back. Others, hit the sidewalks flanking the street then closed the cone of fire tighter to the center, forcing the retinue to take cover.

All of a sudden, one of the traitors from the second floor of the tavern was thrown out of a window. As the retinue was hiding from rounds, Genevieve had calmed down to stop her irregular breathing. Using Heliomancy, she was able to stop the bleeding of her ear just by touching it with her charged fingers. "Status report!" the Eldar was shouting to Odicar. "Uh, we're pinned down here with two wounded. No way out unless we use smoke grenades to charge at the enemy, maybe we can also retreat from this kill-zone" said the Scion. Stubber shots whistle pass over Genevieve's head when Adalheid said "How should we proceed, Inquisitor?" Thinking that if they ran back now, even if they used smoke to hide their exit, the fire incoming was too overwhelming to avoid.

Not wanting to be blind and shot in the back, the Inquisitor was going to make the decision the others won't like. "Odicar, prepare your squad to pop smoke then charge on my command!" the slender head then turns to look at Adalheid after she was done using the vox-transmitter, "Do you have any krak grenades?"

"Yes, two of them to blow up hovercrafts just in case. What may I ask is the plan?"

"You see, once we charge at them, I'll use the grenades to create an opening in the walls. You will then tear down more of the wall for us to jump in. For they expect us to run in through the front door. We'll take them by surprise!"

"The survivability for us in this plan is… suicidal"

"Worry not, I've done things like this a hundred times"

"Truly?"

"No, more like around 60 times if you include my warrior's life"

Grumbling something in binary that only the Mechanicus or machine-spirits could understand, the Mordian didn't like such a stupid idea. "What did you say?" asked the Inquisitor and got the answer "Merely saying a calculation out loud… in binary". The firing was lighter than before when another traitor was thrown out of a window from the tavern. "What?" Genevieve was talking to the air as she got ready to tell everybody to charge. Somebody with enough strength was just going around inside the tavern to shove traitors out of windows to probably their deaths. "Smokes out!" told Odicar to his squad and two Scions threw to have them land near the middle of the street. Genevieve and Adalheid ran in first when the smoke was thick enough to block the vision of the tavern. Throwing two krak grenades at the wall when she got to the other side, she said "Odicar squad, advance now!"

The Scion Sargent was running through the smoke until another Scion yelled "Watch it!" to warn Odicar. Jumping to the right, he narrowly dodge being crushed by a traitor who was falling. "How weird" Odicar made his one remark before running to the Inquisitor. "Uh..." came out of his mouth when he saw Adalheid punching her way through a wall to enlarge the holes left steaming. When she halted, Genevieve said "Breach and clear!" Odicar squad first entered the ground floor with Hellguns pointing to find anybody armed then fanning out. All they saw on this floor were a bunch of cowering townsfolk tied up like animals. "Seems the traitors cleared out the upper floors to corral the civies here," said Odicar. "That's what it looks like, although there may still be civilians on the other floors as well" Genevieve was hinting at the Scions to not to just throw frag grenades to clear out rooms.

Odicar squad plan to split into two they sweep through the other floors to cover more area. When they walked up the stairs to their first floor, the Scions shot every traitor in the first room before they could react. Another room was where Genevieve cleaned it out with sword slices. Meanwhile, Adalheid had thrown two traitors out of a window when she was finishing a room by herself. The other half of the Scions threw a frag grenade to clear a room, after peeking inside to be greeted with a hail of shots. The last room of the second floor emit sounds of struggle when Genevieve ran near the door. She felt the presence of three people fighting each other in a melee. Kicking down the door, she saw a brawny man with a chain-ax fending off two traitors.

"Help, help!" asked the chain-ax wielding man as he was about to be overwhelmed by the traitors. One quick thrust to the abdomen killed the traitor to his right. While a slash decapitated the other traitor to his left, the sword stopped right before it could touch the questionable man. "Hey, hey, I was helping you!" said the man in fear. Adalheid ran in to see a man being held at swordpoint and was quite confused. Odicar came in next to say "What's going on here?" Where Genevieve told him "This person was fighting the Traitor Guardsmen". The man bowed to the Inquisitor then said "My name is Agrippa Publius Bruta but you can just call me Bru-" The Eldar interrupted the introduction with a swift hard strike to Bruta's forehead using the pommel of her sword.

The other two standing next to the Inquisitor stared at her with another unconsciousness man in front of them. "Why did you do that?" asked Odicar along with Adalheid examining the corpses. "He was clearly armed!" replied Genevieve being flustered with something she didn't expect. The Inquisitorial Scion gave a look of doubt to Genevieve when saying "Yet this man was also clearly helping us because he fought the Traitor Guardsmen". Trying not to argue further, turns to leave the room saying "What's done is done, Sargent. Take him back to our ship for interrogation". Adalheid finished seeing the effect of a wraithbone sword through a human neck when she said "What of the civilians?" Genevieve halted in her tracks to think about what to do then told "Odicar, your squad will round up the ones here for questioning before we leave. Adalheid, help Odicar by acting as a living lie-detector… Also Odicar, you have the authority to kill-on-sight anybody suspected of working for these Traitor Guardsmen. I'm going to take a look around".

Odicar with his squad left the room carrying the sleeping body with Adalheid following close behind. Genevieve was waiting outside for everybody to leave the room before reentering the area again. Putting on surgical gloves, she felt ready to sniff through the building. 'What do we have here?' asking nobody while crouching, she picked up the chain-ax with some difficulty due to its weight. Thinking 'Heavy little thing' Genevieve saw the emblem of the World Eaters on both sides. Floating around the idea 'How did he get his grubby little hands on this? Fought against them, fought with them, or stole it from them. Maybe just got it as a gift'. Tailing the Warp presence of Bruta, she moved across the hallway then three doors to the right, to arrive at where Bruta was staying at least for a day.

Carefully opening the door in case of booby-traps, Genevieve wonders inside to search for more about Bruta's intent for fighting the Traitor Guardsmen. One emblem patch was kept in a backpack, for what must have been used for traveling. It had the word 'Calixis' written over an image of a yellow star and a black shield as the background for both. 'Like Battlefleet Calixis, former Imperial Navy. That fleet is stationed in Segmentum Obscuris, so how did he get here? Pirate, renegade, or nobility?' thought Genevieve. Digging through more bags, she found a smoking pipe made from a horn. It was decided that no half-decent pirate or renegade would ever smoke using a pipe so it only left nobility as the background to Bruta. 'Noble joins the navy to then leave it, to go all the way to Ultima Segmentum using his riches and influence. Why?' thinking Genevieve.

There was still no explanation on how Bruta managed to obtain a chain-ax from the World Eaters since they mostly are deployed with Cadian regiments to guard The Maelstrom. She frowned just thinking about the place, that tear in reality into the Warp made the surrounding worlds rebel constantly. With countless Fallen Marine warbands, Chaos Guard battlegroups, and Crone Eldar warparties pouring out of that place, she thanked Khaine for only have fought Tyranids. 'Did Battlefleet Calixis move or did the World Eaters move? Uh… The Battlefleet can't move but those Space Marines surely must travel around the Imperium. That means, they went after something coming out of The Maelstrom and was trying to enter The Eye of Terror' thought the Eldar. She could feel bitterness on her tongue from the mere mention of that, The Eye of Terror was just a bigger and worst version of The Maelstrom.

'Yet the Cadian Gate was never broken since the 11th Black Crusade and those Space Marines were fighting near The Maelstrom back then. After the Black Crusade, no other Chaos forces have broken through all the star-forts and fleets to neither exit nor enter that tear. So the Space Marines caught up to destroy the Chaos… something before it could enter The Eye of Terror, maybe Battlefleet Calixis intercepted to end the chase and help the World Eaters' Genevieve was satisfied with this answer for now. She wanted to confirm if Bruta was a loyalist for helping her or an opportunistic enemy trying to gain her trust. From the corner of her eyes, the Inquisitor spotted The Book of Lorgar and thought 'An aspiring daemon-hunter I see' then chuckling. That book was more for giving instructions for Imperial citizens on how to not die from Chaos and Warp phenomena. 'It appears he read this three times, at least, from the notes written on the pages. Well, he is a loyalist it seems… probably' Genevieve thought while leaving the room to meet up with Adalheid and Odicar.

"Come again, Inquisitor?" Odicar was confused by what was happening.

"I said, what is your opinion on taking Bruta in as a part of my retinue?" She was sure everything about what she found out was told to both of them.

"Uh… This man can wield an Astartes' weapon and doesn't appear to be vile, so why not bring him along" He was afraid Genevieve might get angry with his advice, thus he worded it as tiptoeing in conforming agreement.

"How about you, Adalheid?" Now Genevieve was curious for more.

"Although rather strong, especially for a naval officer, there is an unacceptable risk that he is unhinged. No matter what his intentions were, the best case scenario is that he is a loyal insane fanatic. At worst, he is a cultist agent" Condensing all her probabilities down to three sentences.

"An insane political fanatic, just what we need to complete this poor excuse of an Inquisitorial force!" The Inquisitor was getting excited with this idea.

"Really? Are you sure we need him?" Odicar was trying not to step on Genevieve's metaphorical toes.

"Of course!" She was quick to counter, "Why every inquisitorial force has at least one fanatic".

"Bruta is regaining consciousness," told Adalheid to the other two.

"Act along you two," said Genevieve as she untied Bruta from a column. Bruta's head was still hurting from the blow yet he could see again for it felt like he took a short painful nap. In front of him was this female Eldar Inquisitor helping him up, what surprised him was that he expected to see those hats they always wear but didn't. "Thank you, Inquisitor, but I don't want to receive that pistol to my face once more" getting up groggy from the floor. Genevieve was embarrassed behind that emotionless face of her then said "It was actually a sword. I apologize for that, although you were swinging a chain-ax around". After brushing off some dust from Bruta, she said "I know all about you Agrippa Bruta. You're a long way from home, aren't you? Never mind that, my name is Genevieve Genth o Alayran. Not my full name but it will do, those under my service call me 'GeGe' for short" with a smile in the end.

Adalheid turns to look at Odicar's face to confirm what was going on, then Odicar just shrugged his shoulders in confusion. "I like to keep it informal when working, right guys?" Genevieve was asking the other two when turning to look at them with eyes that can punch through armor plating. "Uh… yes, that's right...GeGe" Odicar was still unused to saying that. Adalheid wasn't under the Eldar for long, and even she knew only Hatter called her GeGe because he didn't care for rank or protocol with Genevieve tolerating it. The toleration was also most likely just an act to appear unaffected by insults or baits to anger.

Genevieve turned back around to ask Bruta "What is the Lex Deus Imperator?"

Saluting to stand at attention, Bruta said "Lex Deus Imperator is High Gothic meaning 'God-Emperor Law'. It was enacted right after the Imperial Civil War to prevent any and all people who ascend to the Golden Throne to not be worshiped, like Goge Vandire when he became the self-declared God-Emperor sparking the war. Punishment for breaking this law depend on a planet-by-planet basis, although an Arbites or Inquisitor can overturn and expand the punishment. These punishments include but are not limited to finical penalties, enslavement, torture, execution, tortures execution, and… community service".

Odicar noted, "Community service don't seem bad even compared to tortures execution".

"Have you ever been assigned to clean a hive city's sewers?" asked Genevieve to cause the Scion to almost vomit. "It is remarkable you can recite the law almost like a wordsmith, " said the Seer with added admiration to her tone.

"Oh, that? I just reread one of King Vulkan's essays on law recently"

"Ah! A true Man with unshakable loyalty to the Imperium! Great, you're hereby conscripted to be under my service"

"Um… Thank you!… I guess?" said Bruta expressing a mixed bag of anger, happiness, confusion, sadness, and excitement all at the same time.

"Don't worry," She told him using a softer voice, "Just think of this as another step in running away from home after leaving the navy… permanently".


	5. Imperatrix

_"For the Empress!"_

_\- 68th "Empress' Sons" Scion Tempestus regiment_

"So, how dif ou enn up wif her?" Bruta stuffing his face with food that he could only faintly remember eating some time in his past life of nobility. Odicar was making a face of annoyance at the level of unprofessionalism that this former officer was displaying. Light green and yellow electro-torches lined up along the walls of the mess hall to give light to what the Scions didn't want to see. "Excuse me, I couldn't understand you what with all that food holding your tongue," said Odicar trying his best not to be angered. Fine wine, roasted grox, and herbal bread were common back when this fanatic lived in the Brutii estate then he joined the Imperial Navy and never looked back. Naval rations were fine and he could enjoy luxury food but it wasn't as preventive like on his home world. After the navy was pretty much eating like a center-hiver, harden bread with preservatives or flesh bars made from questionable meat. The zealot took a cup of wine to chug down the food, clearing his mouth, "Ah yes, I was asking how your platoon got to service under GeGe." Shifting around on his seat back and forth, he didn't like how Bruta called Genevieve by this, yet it seems like he would have to play along permanently.

"She picked us up from our training world as soon as we were done, then got on Isha's Poison."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"There must be more to that tale than this."

Adalheid was sitting still to record the conversation between Odicar and Bruta using her shoulder-mounted pic recorder when they were right next to her on the same table. "What are you doing Bio-Priest?" asked Bruta. "Acquiring observational Men social data" she answered before the pic recorder folded itself in half then detach to fall right into her hands. "Unfortunately, since the subjects noticed my observations, I must continue this later," told Adalheid to both of the guys. Bruta just gave an odd look to Odicar to get back, "She always acts like this, you'll get used to it." There was a golden thin line running down his pants when Bruta stood up to stretch. The shoulders were covered by rectangular harden yellow flak fabric made to appear as eagle wings. More decorations cover the naval uniform as the arms, sleeves, and collar had golden laces while a silver braid was woven along the buttons from the neck down. All of this gold and silver was on sky blue fabric making up the rest of the uniform.

"How about this, I'll tell you why GeGe picked to recruit from my regiment," said Odicar as Adalheid got up to leave the table. She was carrying around her nutrient paste canister that was hooked up to her left arm via tubes, she left her seat to put away the pic recorder or refill the canister.

"How long was that again?" the Sargent was asking himself, "Right, it was about one Terran year ago when the Isha's Poison entered orbit over our training world. After that was a quick introduction where GeGe told us '...to act like your in the Imperial Army' before being shipped off to fight a cult."

"Well, that seemed… rushed."

"At that time, her Inquisitor mentor just already died and she didn't have any champions other than her frigate."

"Why did she want you guys so badly?"

"You should know about the limit to how many an Inquisitor can conscript, which is 100 personal champions, one frigate of any class including a full crew with whatever vehicles could be stored inside it. Inquisitors can request command or help from any branch of the Administratum and the Imperial Army yet those the Inquisitor seek aid from can always turn them down. She told me that she really wanted to take the entire regiment with her but that would be numbered around 1,000. Thus it was settled to take only two squads with her."

"Come on, unless she was invading a Daemon world, there is no need to take a regiment of Scion with her. Couldn't she just took 100 Scions instead?"

"She works well with less apparently, also never led a force larger than 40 men. You guys in the navy didn't know it, but there was a bad case of Nurgle's Rot back then destroying a sub-sector in Segmentum Obscurus. It almost spread out to the rest of the sector if not for a quarantine sealing off that sub-sector from the rest of the Imperium. Battlefleet Gothic was shooting at any void ship departing a world's gravity well as a part of that operation. Those ships really know how to set up a quarantine." He chuckled grimly after saying that last sentence.

"That appear to be a bit harsh you know, shooting at friendly civilian and military ships. It must have killed tens of thousands or a hundred thousand Imperials."

"Oh yeah, it definitely did, no doubt about that. They would first fire warning shots but if those void ships didn't slow down and tried to enter warp space, the Gothic guys just shoot to kill. Not even trying to disable the engines like other Battlefleets would have."

"Gods' piss, was it that bad?"

"Worst planetside, this thing was spreading like crazy and this was GeGe's first assignment. To stop this plague using 20 Scions, some outdated voidcraft, and a frigate. At least our regiment wasn't called 68th Empress's Sons for no reason. You see, the reason why she conscripted Scions from the 68th is because we undergo grueling anti-poison training. Along with drinking blessed blood from decedents of those originally gifted with disease immunity from Isha, makes the 68th the perfect soldiers to fight the Plague Lord's minions."

"Except for Fallen Marines."

"Well, the only real counter to those guys is lots of Space Marines and maybe a swarm of Battle Sisters. My point is that we were convenient to her, she snatched us away before the Imperial Army could transfer us to the front. Close enough to intervene from our training world, we were shipped off as soon as possible. For her to have her mentor just die, then have to deal with the Rot is like being dumped out of Cryosleep into a boiling pot. She just took any advantage she could get."

"So how did you stop the Rot?" Bruta's eyes lighting up in curiosity to hear the rest of the story.

"Too long, ask GeGe or another veteran Scion. I said I would tell you why she conscripted us, not about the months worth of operations right afterward." Odicar was standing up to get more food while brushing off crumbs from his uniform in disgust.

"Huh..." Much thought was put into trying to figure out how an Inquisitor with 20 Scions stops the Rot, he knew she didn't use Exterminatus grade weapons or else she would probably no longer be an inquisitor. That and possibly magic was used if all else fails. He was thinking of anything that could have allowed GeGe to have the means of halting such a threat. Then the mind dwells on the question if the inquisitor was a puritan or a radical. Gulping from the thought that he might be working for radical, Bruta was visibly distraught with the idea. There was no real way of wiggling out of inquisitorial conscription which was why it was limited to only 100 individuals in the first place, that and nobody with planetary level effectiveness could be removed. Bruta knew that by being removed from Zhong, he wouldn't effect it on a planet wide scale, unlike a general or governor. He traced his right hand along the hallway back to his room when thinking about the scary idea.

Looking through the archives on this insignificant Hive world, GeGe was trying to find an alarming pattern or odd irregularities throughout the planet's history. She then remembered about the helper servitor which worked in the library back on planetside while reading about farming productivity affected by climate change. It made her shutter that a library of all places used a servitor instead of something a lot more suicidal like on the battlefield or mines. These lifeless husks were a rare sight for most of the Imperium as they were deemed immoral for common usage within the wider Imperium. That was why only the Mechanicus and Fallen Marines used them frequently as they are not bound by Imperial morality, the former was used legal technicalities while the latter did it illegally. To her, the servitors did serve a role in the Imperium as punishment for convicted traitors who must work the rest of their undying life for the government until they break down. Being converted into a servitor was considered one of the worst penalties a citizen can receive, which GeGe believed mustn't be thrown around triviality like the Mechanicus has done.

Tired of looking at the planet's history from the modern days to the past, she began reading about the world from before Men first set foot on it. Earliest identifiable records show that it was originally inhabited by Xenos natives before a plague killed off the population by the time Man first discovered it. The world was colonized during the Dark Age of Technology, or Reign of Technology if you ask a Reformed Tech-Priest. Then the Age of Strife plunged the world into warring states where three major kingdoms ruled most of the planet. The fighting didn't end until during the 300-year long era known as the Great Crusade by M31. The bodyguards and the servants of Isha called simply as the Handmaidens, did visit the world in M32 for unknown reasons. The reports on the Handmaidens arriving planetside were highly classified, to the point where the only way to see the reports were looking at the physical copies of it inside the governmental archives in an Upper Hive behind a bloodlock. GeGe was frustrated with her lack of creativity on tackling this problem to told herself, "Why didn't I think of this sooner, I should have look through the classified information first."

Bringing her fist down on the wooden table to make a thud, the planning finally clicked inside her mind. "Anything worth finding would be hidden wouldn't it?" One sensible chuckle escape the mouth when GeGe got up to go to her psyker messenger down the hallway. The messenger room had a bunk bed for the psyker and adept who stay near the psylock transmitter most of the time. There were crude drawings of void maws on the wall made from illegally obtained chalk. To this day, GeGe never figured out who stole the chalks as both of them admitted to their guilt, trying to spare the other. This time, the two idiots were fooling around in their room when the inquisitor barged in. The psyker wore suspender pants and a tank top as round fruit fell on his face. His skinny arms couldn't catch the food in time after he was frightened with GeGe sneaking up on him.

Laughing to what just happened and being oblivious to the inquisitor, the adapt was pointing at the failed psyker in amusement while she let out a hardy snort. Covered in a gray trench coat and red armband on the right arm, the adept bolt up to salute when she noticed the Eldar standing in the doorway peering in. The psyker rushed cleaning up the fruit from the floor so he could also salute after the adept. His hazel eyes held nervous mannerisms anticipating punishment from his superior, "Ma'am!" said while he was thankful about not forgetting protocol. "Petty Officer Zau," GeGe nodded at the psyker then turn to the adept, "Rate Kaidun." Boots clicking when Kaidun said, "Ma'am!" after her emerald eyes shift about left and right when GeGe found them.

"Just, what were you two idiots doing here?" She let out a sight from the people like this that surrounded her.

"I was ah- testing my hand-eye coordination."

Striking a palm to her forehead, Kaidun said, "Blyat…"

"By juggling food?"

"Um..."

Kaidun spoke up before Zau could come up with something more stupid to say, "I told him that I would pay to see him act like a jester."

"The psylock transmitter, an expensive sensitive equipment, one of the few ways of communication back planetside. Is where he started throwing fruit around right next to?"

Forming the biggest smile on her freckled face with the lips to get near the short ginger hair, "Da?"

The Eldar brought a hand to rub her forehead from all the people she had to deal with today, "Whatever, Zau prepare to send a message to Manchuguo Upper Hive Archives. Kaidun, whip out parchment to deliver this to them." The adept pulled out paper from the roll on her hip to type down 'Inquisitorial code – liu, wu, yi, qi, si, ba, jio, san – request entrance to second top classified records – Imperatrix class level – use blood signature of Agrippa Publius Bruta'. When the adept was furiously done typing, she went over to Zau while GeGe left to drink some tea to calm herself. They both went to work operating the machine with Kaidun starting first, she hooked up the cables into the back neck of Zau, "You didn't set the frequency to 0.00 did you?"

"What?! I'm not trying to lobotomize myself!"

"Hey cyka! I was just making sure you were fine. I don't want to see you turning into a vegetable you know."

"How thoughtful," Zau said with a smug face, "Now I'm ready to send the message but let me do this first."

In training, the astropath had almost accidentally sent a message while thinking the frequency didn't reset on the psylock. The feedback loop of the message could have short circuited his brain if not for the trainer intervening in the last minute. These things are not a problem for psykers of Iota rank or higher but for those below who have little to no training can very well be crippled with the psylocks.

Back on Manchuguo Upper Archives, a 30-something-year-old psyker was asleep drooling on the desk next to her psylock station. From nowhere, her mind felt like a hammer was hitting it to grab attention. "I'm awake, I'm awake!" said the psyker then wiping clean her face after she shot up in her seat. The old adept man next to her took out his paper to start typing. The psyker started to hear the message from Isha's Poison with 'Inquisitorial code...' which caught the attention of a Securitas Sister who was reading a book near them. When she got up to the cubical, the rest of the message was heard by her as the psyker spoke it out loud while the old man typed down everything. "Inquisitors," said the Sister with annoyance flowing out of her mouth. The adept handed the paper to the Sister after tearing it off from his roll, "Don't worry, I'll vox this over to my Sister Superior, you just go back to sleep." His afternoon nap was back on schedule and his psyker coworker resume creating a spit puddle.

Feeling refreshed from the tea, GeGe went off to find Bruta to inform him of his first mission. The noble was polishing his chain-ax inside his assigned room when the Eldar knocked on the doorway to alert him that she was entering. He had already made quick work of unpacking his few possessions from the backpack as the books lay stacked in a corner next to his bed. "Burn it down and start again." Reciting a quote from The Emperor when he was known as The Warlord, the man reminded himself of why he never returned to his parents and siblings. "Oh, I didn't see you there Inquisitor!" Placing down the shiny weapon with the gentlest of a touch on the table. She waved a hand to tell him to stay seated, "Remember, just call me GeGe, no need for formalities." Giving a puzzled face to the Eldar, Bruta said, "No need to check up on me, I'm perfectly fitting in with the crew and this fine ship." GeGe drops the playful face to a more serious stance as she was about to brief Bruta on his first mission.

Her eyebrows frowned before she said, "Are you sure you can fight for me with a chain-ax?"

"Don't worry, I've fended off more boardings with this thing then I can count."

"Then I'm ordering you to take a Las-pistol just in case, by the way, your going to come with me when I go to retrieve classified documents in Manchuguo."

"Can I ask why?"

"Classified..." Told GeGe with the most stern face she could muster, "...Joking, merely a jest," said with an expression of amusement.

"Oh- You had me scared there."

"I need your blood signature for a bloodlock."

"What!? I never registered a bloodlock on Zhong with my fingerprint!"

"No, I did."

"Because?"

"My fingertips are sensitive..." Trailing off the last word to hide the fact every time she used a bloodlock, she sweated profusely while gritting her teeth waiting for the needle to prick then take blood from the thumb.

"That's it? I thought it was going to be more special than at."

"Will you comply!" Anger boiling up to break through the surface when she said those words mixed with a faint embarrassment.

"No objections here, GeGe." Doing his best to keep cool under the gaze of an enraged inquisitor.

"Good, prepare yourself for a combat mission within the next Terran day. Also, never mention about my sensitive fingertips to anybody, do I make myself clear?" The voice shifting into akin a prowling cat rising to almost being threatening.

Placing his right hand over his heart, "By my House's honor, both shall be done."

Satisfied after hearing the answer, GeGe made ready to leave Bruta alone after she said, "Good… night? I think… I forget how confusing the sleep cycle on a void ship can be."

Cold air on the Upper Hive made walking around outside unconformable, much like on every other Hive city in the Imperium. Bumps on the skin formed as even the Exo-armor couldn't block out the breeze moving into the tiny spaces between the plates and bodysuit. She knew she should have been wearing her helmet to keep out the wind whilst waiting. The woman kept checking her limbs if the movement accelerators were working properly, knowing a flaw can render the limbs immobile. Worst, the armor can keep moving without her control to break her bones like a twig. To her, it was a small risk for serving amongst a clock and dagger organization for the Imperium. Although, she had hoped for torturing cultist, planting informants, and hunting renegade Space Marines. The romanticized version of Orders Securitas was quite destroyed for her when she was assigned as guard detail for archives from graduation till forever it seemed.

Drumming her fingers on the left thigh plate, Securitas Sister Jin-Hau was getting impatient standing on the landing pad. Around 12 Terran hours have passed since she first heard the message from the sleepy astropath, 10 hours since her Sister Superior was supposed to return to the archives but haven't, three hours since the higher-ups delegated the role of inquisitorial babysitter to Jin-Hau. She didn't know if this was punishment for her clearly justified duel in the mess hall using knives and forks over her stolen dumpling, or the ancestors loved laughing at mortals. Thankfully, nobody was harmed in the duel as the guards tackled Jin-Hau before she could land a hit on the other Securitas Sister. The Inquisitorial voidcraft screamed in fast then jerked hard up to slow down right on top of the pad. This display of unnecessary flair only pissed her off even more about her circumstances. "Thank you for flying 'Ordo Securitas' and please, enjoy your trip," could be heard from inside the black transport followed by laughter from the Inquisitor and her retinue. She hated seeing this whole thing when she was grinding her teeth as she closed the distance between her and the Eldar.

"Lady Inquisitor Genevieve," saying before bowing at the group with a scowl hidden when Jin-Hau faced the floor. Two other Sisters flanking behind follow suit as they also bowed to copy their commanding officer. "Sister Superior Châlons I presume?" With a wave of a hand, Genevieve was telling the Sisters to stop bowing. "No, unfortunately, she could not join us this evening. Likely delayed went returning to this institution." That last part was guesswork from Jin-Hau as she didn't know why her superior didn't come back after this much time. "Tell me your name," GeGe ordered with readiness to move things along. "Jin-Hau," said the doubtful woman. The cold wind bares down on her earthy hair when she was staring at the Inquisitor with flaming yellow eyes. This Sister was trying to figure out what game the inquisitor was playing at, to come here of all places. Showing the way inside when holding out her hand to point at the left door, Jin-Hau guided the way to the first locked door.

Dark halls and passages form a maze of confusion that led from the landing pad to the actual doors of the archives. The gatekeeper asked for verification from both the Sister and Inquisitor, which the Eldar held up her rosette while the woman pulled out a metal card. Jin-Hau inserted her card into a code-reader where the machine made a few clicking sounds before it spat back out the card. Automatically, the heavy doors grind against the floor as they opened, releasing stale air from inside the archives. "Been a while since I walked the halls of a grand building such as this." Bruta broke the silence between the Sisters and the retinue. Frowning for reminding a younger version of herself, Jin-Hau said, "Don't let the grandeur fool you, the jobs of those inside here is rather dull." Smirking at the opportunity present, "Oh, I expect that," said GeGe to leave Jin-Hau puzzled at the true meaning of that comment. Everybody came to a stop at the final door until the Imperatrix-level classified doors, they made it this far with just the card insertion from Jin-Hau but now it was different.

The device attached to the wall right next to the doors was a bloodlock. Even though the Sister have access to all levels of classification except Imperator-class, she needed to have a visitor go through the bloodlock to keep out impostors. It had a red spot to show people where to place their thumb, either left or right hand would do for unlocking. "If you would, Lady Inquisitor," Jin-Hau said as she prompts the Eldar to make the first move. Nervously, GeGe turns to look at Bruta, "I shan't be subjecting myself to a barbaric contraption. I've already registered the bloodkey under Bruta here, so let him unlock it." Things were turning suspicious for the Sisters but she just said, "But of course my lady," then lowering her head to give a false apology. She knew the Inquisitor could do this but it was odd how she herself didn't register for the bloodlock. The noble stepped up to the machine then put his right thumb on the marking. First, it scanned the fingerprint then a tiny needle emerges from the scanner. The needle poked into the thumb to draw out blood to later return inside the scanner. Finally, a small tube came out of the same place to spray something on the thumb.

"Be sure not to touch anything with that thumb," Jin-Hau told.

"Why is that?"

"Rubbing of any kind interrupts the fast acting healer spray."

"Got it."

It was quieter then the library as there was not a soul in sight, even servitors were not around to attend the many documents and recordings the Inquisitor would search for. Genevieve first entered with her retinue close in tow and the Sisters were the last to walk in. Jin-Hau was to ensure the group didn't tamper the placement of anything or help them find things, she wouldn't like preforming the latter. With hawk eyes, the Securitas Sisters watched over GeGe as she found the report that she was looking for. Written 'Operation: Hei Gui' using giant black fonts, the folder contained several pages concerning the mission conducted by the Handmaidens along with citing other records about Zhong at the time of the visit. "Adalheid, begin scanning these files for future reference," GeGe said while flipping through the other files. The Bio-Priest gave cursory glances up and down the pages before her right eye began shining a blue light at the words. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop right there!" Yelled Jin-Hau with her hand up to tell Adalheid to stop. "And why should she do that?" came back the retort from GeGe.

"Because you don't have the authority to transfer anything from here to outside of the building without permission."

"Yes, that may be true, but I was never going to remove a paper scrap from here."

"I known inquisitors can't act above the law every time it is convenient for them. You have to send a request to the Administratum first, before removing these files from the archives."

"Then I'm not breaking any laws, am I? Just to create scan copies of the records here is not removing them from the archives."

"The law was made to keep classified records stay classified."

"Please, you neither have the power or authority to interpret these laws, leave it to the wordsmiths. Yet I have the legal authority to follow them how I see fit and the power to enforce it, what say you?"

Grumbling under her breath, Jin-Hau knew not to argue with an inquisitor, then silently backed off. Ordering, "Bruta, vox over Odicar to check if he is receiving the copies. Adalheid, don't let anybody interrupt your scanning and upload them back up to out ship," came from GeGe. Reading some of the pages on what this 'Operation: Hei Gui' was, the Eldar learned that during the 2nd Black Crusade, there was a viral outbreak killing all sentient life and almost got off-world. The Handmaidens arrived on the world just in time to prevent it spreading as they fought off weird monstrosities of those infected and cured the sick. Eventually, a few years after the end of the Black Crusade, the outbreak disappeared as fast as it appeared. Few events of note happened in this mission but one revelation frightened Genevieve to the core. One such event was the Handmaidens discovering a Xenos artefact in the form of a mask. Tech-Priests studied it in the underground vault where it was found until the whole thing collapsed crushing them and the research. There was very little data recovered after the collapse as the world was still in turmoil from the outbreak and many records were lost in the resulting chaos.

What little is known about the mask is that it was probably made by the Xenos natives of the planet before their death. There is proof to indicate that it was designed to absorb all sorts of radiation to power nanites released into the wearer, along with providing protection from radiation poisoning. "Jin, is there any radioactive mines on Zhong?" GeGe asked thinking one of the natives might have an answer. Jin did like how her name was shortened but she didn't want to pick a fight with the Eldar, "A few mines were operational some 300 years ago, yet now they all dried up." The thought 'Miners, uh' was swimming around Genevieve's mind. Information on the nanites or what their function was is no longer available. However, some people analyzing the vault structure believed it not to be a mine, as the walls were too well built for containing internal impact rather than preventing collapse.

Ear-splitting sirens accompanied with red lights on the walls became active inside of the archives for some unknown reason and the Securitas Sisters all brought their bolters up to aim at the Inquisitorial group. "Tell her to stop the upload and drop your weapons!" Jin-Hau was ready to fire at the Eldar when the group didn't remove their weapons. "Intruder alert!" kept repeating itself over the loud-vox as the horns vibrate to blare out the message. "Clearly, there is a misunderstanding. You see, we can't be the intruders if we already got past the bloodlock." Genevieve was holding her ground to stall them for Adalheid's upload to finish. "That may be so, but you still need to cooperate with us." The Sisters were now aiming at the torso of those in the group for a clean kill if the worst comes to pass. "Are you done?" Bruta asked then got a nod from Adalheid. A few seconds later after Jin-Hau and Genevieve stared at each other, "Drop all weapons," the Eldar ordered to her group. Adalheid put her Las-carbine and Las-pistol on the floor, Bruta threw his chain-ax and Las-pistol in front of the Sisters, whilst GeGe softly placed her sword still in the sheath and Shuriken pistol next to her feet.

One shockwave rocked everybody in the room as Jin did her best to stay balanced and the inquisitorial group wobbles about. Several ropes descend down from the ceiling after debris fell through the hole the explosion made. Armored with midnight black flak plates, the attackers repelled down with Las-carbines in hand shooting at everything in sight. GeGe rolled out of the way moments before the last place where she was standing was made into toast. Metal bookcases shaking from each shot and paper went flying as the lasbolts connected with documents. "Bruta, Adalheid, status report!" yelled the Inquisitor over vox. "All green," told the noble with a quick succession of "Everything operational," from Adalheid. Intense fire from the attackers made running through the clear center of the room an impossibility.

With no way of reaching the weapons laying on the floor, Genevieve felt useless on relying the Securitas Sisters to do the heavy lifting. Right when she was thinking that, a flash of events mere minutes in the future unfolded before the Eldar's eyes. This vision was about as muddy as the last, it showed the two Sisters covering the flanks of Jin was focused on keeping the fire down range at the attackers in front of them. They failed to notice two attackers on each side bypassed the firefight to shoot them in the back. Jin-Hau would eventually be shot from all sides as the Sisters fell from overwhelming firepower. That was when she saw herself make a break for the weapons then have her legs shot as the attackers approached to execute her with a head-shot they can't miss. Genevieve felt the Las-carbine heat before a sudden and frightful darkness. These divinations were becoming too realistic for her liking.

"Both of you, listen up!" GeGe said over vox, "Prepare yourselves for CQC."


	6. Chapter 6

~~ ~~ ~~~~_"Willingly do you enslave yourselves to this Galactic Eldar Conspiracy!"_

_\- Luther of the Fallen Angles and Warmaster for the Fallen Marines_

Close Quarters Combat was a fighting style developed from times long forgotten by various cultures and many different people for using range and melee weapons at the same time. Human and Eldar were forced to adapt to the morphing reality of the battlefield to create CQC when close ranged weapons became redundant. Stormtroopers and Corsairs are famous for their deadliness when closing in with the enemy, Bruta was not going to be any different. Uncomfortable short distances were common in one of two places in the Imperial Army, one was when assaulting fortification, and another is boarding void ships. The former naval officer was more than used to this as he pulled out a hidden knife from inside his boot that he conveniently forgot to drop on the floor. "Catch!" was all Adalheid said when she threw an Auto-pistol to Bruta. On the right thigh of the Bio-Priest is where the plate retracted back into the leg to close the opening where she kept the gun. "You had a gun inside your leg?" He was asking with one eyebrow raised. She came back with, "In the case of emergencies," the left thigh's plates opened up to let her rummage through to find some clips, "Here, some ammo."

Steadying his Auto-pistol with the knife, Bruta held the gun which had a small part of the clip sticking out under it. The right arm holding the pistol while the left arm holding the knife was resting on the other arm. This was done to dampen the recoil when firing, the simple weight of the left arm was enough to maintain accuracy. On the left hand was the weapon pointed to stab at a moment's notice as it was in the reverse grip. "Follow me." Bruta was telling Adalheid as both of them didn't know who would be ordering who but the Mordian didn't object to the command. Sneaking near to the Securitas Sister who was focused on shooting at anything that moved in front of her, they were careful not to be noticed by neither the enemy nor the Sisters. Both of them didn't want to risk being shot by a friendly if they can help it. That's why Bruta and Adalheid stayed motionless behind cover while watching the Sister on their side.

It was only a matter of time before the first of the dark enemies slowly arrived at the Sister's flank. Creeping up to a firing position with a sound or sudden movement, the black armored man propped his Las-carbine up to aim from a reading table. The sights were looking straight at the right leg of the Sister as she stood in place to aim before firing. Noticing two people to his left, the attacker jerked to shoot at those that were charging him. The first two shots hit Adalheid as Bruta ducked just in time while the third shot hit a bookcase, receiving lasbolts to the chest had a tendency to send the woman flat on her ass from being knocked back with such a force. Even walking around with armor plating as a second skin, she still had a hard time getting up from the floor as Bruta fought the enemy. When Bruta got right in the man's face, he first shoved the Las-carbine with his left hand to have it point away from him then fired into the chest. One pull of the trigger let out a metallic sound of a three round burst being shot to shatter the flak plate.

Gaining the upper hand, Bruta pulled his foot back to cause the man's left leg to lose balance that forced him to fall. Headed for the unarmored neck, the knife almost made it to the flesh if not for the enemy grabbing the weapon with his left hand. The fall had made him drop his Las-carbine unexpectedly but he could still punch the noble in the face using the right hand. As Bruta's knife came down to try slicing through skin, a forceful punch pushed the air from his lungs when the man broke his nose. Staggering back with a blind fury, this zealot had taken enough shit from the dark fiend crawling back to his Las-carbine. Firing another burst, the back plate of the enemy creaked from the Auto-pistol. Still being able to move, somehow, the massive bruising or trauma from the stubber rounds didn't stop the man from grabbing his weapon then flipping onto his back. Under only a second or two, Bruta had the advantage of shooting a burst into the enemy's ribcage, causing a gush of blood to fill the man's mouth and red mist to form in front of him for but a moment.

Over on GeGe's side, she was standing almost like a statue behind a bookcase while her retinue ran off to watch over the Sister on their side before the enemy could flank her. Then as if on cue, the Eldar didn't have to be patient as an enemy covered head to toe in black closed in for the kill. With a clear line of sight and apparently no resistance, the man crouches down on the floor to fire at the legs. The Sister was firing at those in front of her when GeGe jumped out from behind the bookcase to attack the one flanking her. The man swerved his head to look at GeGe on his right while accidentally firing his Las-carbine. Hot frying lasbolts burned up the wiring on the weakest and most flexible parts of the Sisters armored exo-suit, the joint plating. The heat from the shots caused an involuntary spasm for the Securitas Sister as her left leg pulled up to her back unintentionally. Thankfully, Min-Young was more than fluid enough to follow through with the movement instead of fighting it as she fell on her sides to the right. A similar reaction occurred again but in the opposite direction causing fearful eyes to refuse to tear away from looking at her own leg.

It moved from bending near her back to kicking to her front as it kept moving forward. Min-Young seriously wished she had taken combat drugs beforehand as she could hear the crunch of bones when her knee broke. "Ahhhhhh!" Screaming out due to the unrelenting pain, her foot was touching the thigh plate on the front side of her leg. Truly, her knee was beyond broken as the Sister's armor bent the limb to an unnatural angle that most men can't perform. Being overwhelmed with pain, Min-Young barely held onto consciousness when Jin-Hau was trying to get to her. Using a combat roll from a flipped over table to the bookcase, the Sister was ready to do her best to relieve her comrade. The wounded one was laying on the floor with uncontrollable tears rolling down her cheeks and teeth gritting to endure her senses. Jin took out an injector from her pouch using mechanical efficiency to avoid wasting time.

Hazel irises ran watery to glance up into Jin's eyes with relief at her savior. The Sister quickly plants the needle firmly into Min-Young's flesh after brushing aside the dark hair covering the neck. These combat drugs take many different forms for assisting soldiers of the Imperium. Penal Legions might give mass produced rage-inducing injections right before ordering the battalion to charge straight into a kill-zone. Others, like the infamous Krieger Death Korps, eat powerful drugged paste to perform tirelessly on the battlefield while staying at full alert and sometimes die of exhaustion afterward. Some parts of the Imperial Navy with Teutons sailors do give out unofficial candy rations known as Marineschokolade for shifts lasting 12 hours or more. The Mordian Iron Guard does have a very similar candy called Panzerschokolade used in desperate situations like in retreats or night-time operations. Many of these combat drugs are frowned upon for having the unintended effects of extreme fatigue, hallucinations, paranoia, heart attacks, and suicide once the effect wears off.

Thankfully, the injectors that Jin-Hau had were only filled with sedatives which would numb the entire body of Min-Young from feeling her own bones sticking out of her left leg. She had to be careful about how many she injected as the drugs had a delay reaction to the body. Without knowing how much was enough, Jin used only two of the needles as any more and there was a higher risk of accidentally killing Min-Young. Having little to no training on how to use such combat drugs much less actually try them out in a firefight guarding this quiet archive, Jin-Hau did enjoy carrying around unsanctioned injectors with her. At best, she would use them like now to relieve pain or commit suicide to prevent capture, and at worst, she or her squad might become addicted to these things. Sweating from this prospect, Jin whisper prays to her ancestors that Min-Young didn't become an addict by this last resort.

When the Sister was running over to help the other Sister, GeGe's feet landed on the face of the dark enemy. Gracefully standing on top of the man's unconscious head, the Inquisitor leaped off to stand next to the fallen foe. Using a fast kick to disarm the enemy of his main weapon, the Eldar was expecting more of them to try of stopping her while eyeing the man on the floor. Sensitive long ears perked up because even in the den of combat, she could hear the ordered movement circling around to her side. Followed by more pronounced footsteps, three more clad in black armor ready to fire at GeGe's back. "I thought she wasn't supposed to be here!" One of them nervously said and got told to shut up from a comrade. Twirling around to face them, the Inquisitor held a smug face saying "Didn't anybody tell you not to bring a gun to a fist fight?" Suddenly jumping to her side set off the other three to fire.

One flurry of lasbolts burnt up the wall behind where the Eldar was just standing, for those three's reactions was slower than their enemy. Jumping from the bookcase to her right then to her left, she thanks the gods that they were heavy enough to withstand her weight. It seems that the bookcases were bolted to the floor in case of the building rattling from artillery bombardments. Flying down from the air with a powerful thud, the Inquisitor was standing behind an enemy who was the futurist away from her originally. Trying to turn to face her, the dark man found himself in a choke hold with GeGe's arm around his neck while another arm made to pull the trigger of the Las-carbine. Firing wildly into the air, his comrades opened fire on him to keep burning through the flak armor. Holding the lifeless body by the collar with her left hand and the Las-carbine in the right hand, the excited Eldar returned fire behind the meat-shield. The man a bit to her left and closest to her was being toasted much to his shock as he was recovering from the fact he just shot a squad mate. All the way in the back was one with sweaty armor which shifted in uncomfortable humidity when he knew he wouldn't live.

Chiyo's gray eyes fluttered about trying to sink everything in. First, she was confused how an enemy almost killed her was prevented by people that should be her prisoners. Then her commanding officer ran off to help Min-Young who was bleeding from a contorted leg, leaving herself to hold the line. Noticing the dwindling lack of firepower from the two unavailable Sisters, the black armored soldiers closed in on Chiyo from her front instead of being pinned down. 'Piss, piss, piss!' It was that thought going through her mind which forced her to take stock of what she had. 'Ammo pouch, food box… Explosives!' Thinking if she could render the enemy ineffective at shooting their Las-carbine, her armored exo-suit could crush them in melee. Sliding out a frag grenade, she threw and waited to explode before she would charge. It landed in the middle of the five-man group to detonate leaving one with minor cuts and another unconscious, they scattered like bugs yet still advance all the same. "Dame that flak armor." Silently cursing that the Emperor would strike them down for specifically designing those things, it rendered most fragmentation to be almost harmless.

Looking at what other grenades she has, Chiyo also had stun grenades for breaching rooms but it could also be used in this environment. Lips mouthing the words of divine intervention from the Imperial Gods, the Sister threw the grenade after counting down to four seconds. In mid-flight, the explosive blinded all the foes in front of her who stare to find out where it would land, not knowing that this was no frag grenade. Their faces were covered in but a simple black mask to hide their identities and needed photo-visors which they lack. The irises had light flooding in from the flash in the air when Chiyo turned away. These men were covering their sight with a hand or arm to block out any vision of brightness from the chem-bulbs and electro-torches. In the midst of confusion, the Sister approached the enemy unharmed, much to her surprise. Her foes had taken cover behind anything they can find before they would launch another attack on her position.

Taking care not to make a noise, Chiyo slowly stepped right up to the left of an enemy hiding behind a column. He was cowering in fear and made a little sound to prevent her figuring out why they halted advancing. The sitting man suddenly heard "Hello" from a woman's high-pitch voice before being dragged backward in a choke-hold. Arms clawed to reach his Las-pistol but it was already taken from him and the Las-carbine was the first to be ripped from his hands then thrown across the room. Desperate to not black out, he tried elbowing the Sister in the gut only to receive a bruise and his bones vibrate, then punches were thrown at Chiyo's face to have her dodge all two of them. Darkness crept up his vision for one last time when he struggled in vain. Arms flailing about like a drowning kid, the body's motor function cease to operate from his wind pipe being blocked off for too long. The immobile body impacted the floor with clanking from the various flak plates on the back and head.

Still, in the hue of adrenals from her artificial gland, Chiyo was so happy to be seeing action right after choking the man out. This was an outburst of abnormality from the boring job of overseeing visitors and the tedious task of shuffling through pic-records. Her hardy muscles tightened at the thought of doing similar again to what she just did to one of the enemies. Time was flitting from Chiyo when there was a clear deadline as to how she must react as the other three men started to regain sight. Charging head first at an enemy behind a toppled desk, she pinned the foe to the ground before bring both her clenching fist down to crush his chest. Thinking he was probably still alive as blood poured out of his mouth, the Sister ran at another dark one. This time, a glancing shot grazed a shoulder pad doing little damage for Chiyo. Confident that there was no internal bleeding but just some minor bruising, she didn't slow down at all. Using power from her breathing, she gave a strong right hook to the jawline of the black one. It did help that she trained every day to maintain peak physical conditions like a lean Macedonian athlete and her power was amplified by her armor.

Teeth went flying out of the guy's mouth when the blow connected with his ringing head. He fell on the floor knocked out from one punch while Chiyo walked over to the last member. Tears escaping his eyes, the dark one tried to crawl away without his Las-carbine which was left on the floor. One great stomp halted the retreating man as the left foot was brought down on his back. She loved the way her armored boot crushed him like a bug but lifted when she could hear bones crunch. Checking the man on his belly, there was no pulse on his neck for he was lifeless. 'Oh well' Giving only a thought on how she accidentally killed him by crushing his spine. "Didn't think that would happen." Remarked Chiyo when she might permanently cripple him or cause internal bleeding, but not actually kill him.

The Kazegokan warrior pulled up the dead man's face to look at him eye to eye, and she was sure enough to see the soulless empty orbs of eyeballs before her. "Regroup on me!" Over the vox, Chiyo heard Jin-Hau order her to move next to Min-Young who was laying on the floor. Gray eyes shifted to where she was told to meet at while tossing the corpse like a trash bag away from her face. Rushing over to her commanding officer, Chiyo saw there was a moment of pause from Jin before aiming her weapon at Genevieve. "Hold it right there! Don't move a centimeter, you hear me?" There was a conviction in the Zhongese's voice and it looked like she would blow off the Eldar's head if she made any sudden movement. The Inquisitor slowly raised her arms into the air then turning to face Jin. "You must know I mean you no harm." Wearing a shocked face when confronted with a bolter. GeGe thought that surely she was fast enough to dodge a bolter shell but didn't want to risk having a foot blown off like last time.

"How can I know this wasn't a false flag operation?"

"You don't, but there is no evidence that it is one either."

Chiyo whispered, "It's not like we can really restrict the movement of an Inquisitor without at least some circumstantial evidence."

"Let me handle this," Jin-Hau was frowning as she knew it to be true, "Lady Inquisitor, you will not be placed under arrest," grumbling "Even though you should be," under her breath. "As long as you will be under my escort at all times on this planet."

Thinking, 'Idiot' before answering after a few second of false pondering, "I find your terms agreeable."

Lowering her weapon to cool the tension, Jin-Hau ordered Chiyo "Take Min-Young to the nearest medic." For the Kazegokan to interject, "What about the combat drugs?" The Sister was smiling when she said "Don't worry about it and let me deal with it" whilst looking at the floor. The Joseonan with the broken leg practicality had to hop on her right leg as the other Sister had to help her up to take each other outside of the room. The walls were battered from the bolter fire while many priceless pic-records and documents were burnt by lasbolts. Chairs had been crushed from combat and tables were thrown sideways to act as cover near the scarred columns. One small firefight turned the room into something of a war-zone from the looks of things. Bruta and Adalheid stopped sneaking around when Jin walked up to talk to GeGe with the bolter slung to her side.

"I swear by my ancestors, I will blow your pretty little head into jelly if we find proof of your treason."

With a smug satisfaction in knowing that would never happen, the Eldar told her, "And I expect nothing less from one of Orders Securitas."

Although rare, there were times when the Orders Securitas turns on other agents of Ordo Securitas if the need arises. Inquisitors have been killed by their own Sisters allies if those of the Orders believed the Ordo agents have crossed the line of treason for an unjustifiable reason. The degree of punishment vary on a case by case bases, sometimes the Sisters are hunted down to be slaughtered as renegades if there is little to no evidence in their defense or the dead Inquisitor had friends in high places. Other times, the Imperium brushes the incident under the rug and pretend it never happened while quietly congratulating the Sisters. Such a stance for these Sisters might be required thought Jin-Hua when she made this arrangement while worrying if they had the ability to kill an Inquisitor, especially when that Inquisitor could see the future.

To present a more intimidating presence, the Sister walked up to the slightly taller Eldar to tell her, "Now you just stay put before-". Jin-Hau halted when GeGe just shoved her out of her way to examine a corpse. "Let me do my job while you girls play espionage," said the Inquisitor with the same tone she used when acting as an Enforcer, "Things will go smoothly if you cooperate." There was something inherently like an Arbitrator when GeGe talk like that, as she was no soft law philosopher like some of the other Enforcers. Jin-Hau was stunned too much with the blatant arrogant behavior of the Eldar to respond. "Lest you want to be like an armored meat sack, you could help me scour this room for evidence," told the Inquisitor. "And what exactly are we looking for?" asked Jin-Hau annoyed. Agrippa interjected, "Um, right. What are we suppose to find?" While opening the pouches on a body she said, "Enemy intelligence on anything from orders, movement, records, locations, call signs, or food." Adalheid looked puzzled for a short second then saying, "Food?" The Eldar was busy ripping out a voxbead when she said, "One can tell much from what food you consume, tenfold if that food was grown locally."

"Oh, like how the local rice is different to the imported ones!" Agrippa inserted after his face lit up in excitement. The party moved out at once picking the bodies clean of anything relevant. Jin-Hau brought back a backpack full of incendiary bombs with timers attached to them. Adalheid was scanning the weapons for any organic matter clinging to it, unseen to the naked eye. Her optics immediately detected various different fungi on the metal while cross referencing it on her bodily, planetary, and ship databases to find any which are found almost exclusively found on Zhong. There were traces of Ustilago esculenta lining the barrel on some of the Las-carbines. "My observations have indicated that the enemy has failed to maintain their weapons."

"What makes you say that?" GeGe took a closer look at the Las-carbine which Adalheid was showing the Eldar.

"The grass-fungus Ustilago esculenta, have been found along near the trigger and sides of these three weapons."

"This doesn't explain much cog hea-"

"Adalheid," The Bio-Priest said in a flash of an enrage program running for but a second, "It is commonly seen growing on wild rice of two planets, once it grew on Terra but not longer exist… And Zhong."

Jin-Hau blurred it out, "You don't mean the Manchu wild rice!?"

Deep in thought, the former naval officer said, "It would make sense to find crop traces for something that is only grown on this planet and back when I was a wanderer, I did stumble upon farms that grew this stuff in the wetlands."

The Sister's fire within her grew on the thought of excitement when saying, "Those farms are only found in the wetlands east of this city!"

"Good job everybody! Now I'll call in Odicar to pick up the corpses and prisoners back to the ship." The Inquisitor was joyous for the findings that she herself probably wouldn't have known. "Adalheid, you will dissect the corpses while Agrippa helps you." Where the noble made a disgusted face at the suggestion of standing next to stinking dead bodies. "Jin, you will hence forth no longer have to follow me."

"Oh no, you don't! You can't wiggle your way out of this one with a technicality loophole mimicking an Adept. There is no using throwing around High Gothic laws to try to confuse me when I know, I have the ability to keep track of you on the slightest hint of treason by obvious means or other wise. And to be frankish, it is better for the both of us if I and my Sisters stay with you for the time being than to have informants consistently feed us information."

Taken aback from the bombardment of words insisting the Sisters must join her, GeGe was surprised with the response if not for a few psychic signs Jin presented before talking. Never had she seen a retinue stubbornly wanted to join an Inquisitor as much as that Sister. With a small grin, the Eldar said, "It seems I have no choice but to introduce you to my party first if you truly wish to stay."

 


	7. Asymmetrical

_"Reality is a cruel mistress"_

_\- Lady Malys_

"Ah, come in please." With a hand gesture, GeGe ushered in the Sisters to her personal quarters. The careful pace of the two who entered were Jin and Chiyo, they inspected the room for anything suspicious. There were plenty of items which were curious but nothing to pin a crime on the Inquisitor. "Have a seat, I've prepared tea for you both." From out of one of the rooms next to her bedroom came the Eldar. Wraithbone tray in hand and on it, two cups next to the teapot. The dull eyes of Chiyo couldn't bare to look at the blinding white material the ceiling lights reflected off. Jin noticed the lack of a third tea cup. "Where is your cup?" She sat the tea set down softly on the recaff table to grab a metal canteen of water sitting on the same table. The two Sisters could only give a questioning look with eyebrows for it when given the answer.

"Don't be silly. If I were to poison you, I'd have just sent my Scions to kill you girls with darts while you were changing attire. Not to mention mixing toxins is more noticeable when using water-based tea instead of milk."

"Well then." It was all Chiyo said before smelling her cup.

"Were you trio to truly die by my hands, all of you would already be voided out of an airlock without helmets."

"Why not join us in this drink?" Jin had a vicious smile whilst raising her cup for a toast.

One quick wave from the Eldar showed she refused to drink the tea. "I'm afraid it is not in my culture to enjoy too many luxuries. You see, my Imperial cousins in Craftworlds and Exodite worlds already see Maiden worlders as xenophile decedent Eldar. Even the act of consuming enough food to be filled is considered decedent, so I would stay with water for the time being. Maybe to celebrate later, I'll eat food and drink treats with flavors."

The Sisters both glanced at each other before taking another good long whiff over their respective cups. "I assure you the tea is perfectly not drugged." Then the two of them took a tiny sip. GeGe saw how Jin didn't lift her little finger but Chiyo did. She took note to remember that for a later conversation. Neither of the two women couldn't detect any poison in the drink, meaning it was safe or they just weren't good in toxin training. Thankfully, it was the former as no effect kicked in yet. The gray tunic of Jin wrinkled uncomfortably when she said, "The tea is nice and all but what is your true reason for summoning us here? Surly it wasn't to eat lunch with you."

"My name isn't Surly." Told the Inquisitor, causing Chiyo to cough a bit with tea still in her throat. The another Sister only glared at Chiyo to stop for the bad joke.

"There will be no meal with me for now, but I do want to understand how you girls operate and the backgrounds you come from."

Calling her a girl annoyed Jin even when knowing that GeGe was at least 100 years older than her trio's life time combined. "No need to make that face." The Eldar poured more tea into Chiyo's cup to keep them distracted from the unwillingness of Jin to talk. "Will you at least tell me where you girls grew up in." Jin was uneasy to answer but she would be the first to talk after another sip from her cup. "I'm a native of this world." Then going back to silent drinking not just because she didn't want to talk but also in part the flavor was nice. "Well, I'm from Kazekoku. It is a Hive world with farms like here but not as much manufactorums polluting the air." Recent memories of smog and the unpleasant oppressive atmosphere still linger on the Inquisitor's mind much like the city's toxins. Masses of citizens who filled the streets had more than enough of those who wore gas masks, making them not an uncommon sight for good reason. "Let me guess, you were transferred here as punishment?" GeGe took a shot in the dark to almost hit something. The Sister rubbed her chin with a freed hand while grinning then shifting to look at Jin. "I wasn't stationed here for that reason but… Well, you know how the Sister Orders are like, they keep moving us around. It just so happens that Zhong was understaffed."

Nostrils flared up for Jin when she said, "I'll have you know that guarding top-secret documents-"

"That nobody almost looks at." Chiyo butted in.

"Is an honor and a privilege granted to me for my diligence and service." Repeating the same trash her superiors told her when assigning her to this instead of a real task.

"I'm sure it is." Refusing to rid herself of a smug smile the Eldar had for now knowing why Jin acts the way she acts. "Now tell me the real reason why you were sent to a backwater archive that almost nobody uses."

In defeat, the Sister hunched foreword with a sigh then told in a sad voice, "One fight in the mess hall for food stolen from me, led me to be permanently be stationed in that archives instead of being sent off-world like I was meant to." Embarrassment, regret, and sadness unintentionally leaped out her mouth when the air left her. Even lacking in social skills, the Eldar can still feel the mood from Jin with her mind. "That is absurd!" GeGe blurred out in a tiny bit of anger as she controlled herself. "Yea… It is," Her voice shrinking to a timid level rarely seen by most. "But Orders Securitas and Militant do love to punish their own subordinates, unlike the Imperial Army."

"Is that why you were so insistent on following me around?" The Inquisitor came to the conclusion.

Was the air filters no working or was Jin starting to become hot from that question. There wasn't any sweat on her forehead yet she was definitely bothered where the body suddenly felt hot for no reason. "No, I mean yes… For a while, I want to stay away from that building." This made Chiyo arch her eyebrow at the idea of tagging along an Inquisitorial retinue to escape boredom, "What makes you think we are up for such a mission?" GeGe added in, "Not to sound pessimistic but the last major firefight my host was in led to four losses." Her fiery eyes glow vibrantly in the light when the eyebrows pointed down to give a determined face with all seriousness. Placing the cup down back on the tray before crossing her arms, "With all due respect, as unprepared, outnumbered, and surprised as we were. Me and my Sisters still fought and won against what were effectively Guardsmen."

"This is not to underestimate you but your cohort is prancing around in exo-suites which allow you to kill most people with your thighs alone. Not to mention the bolters you have can rip through flak armor but your armor can withstand anything short of explosives. Your chances of survival drop dramatically once you encounter enemies who are stronger than you three combined, which I'm afraid we will face in this world." GeGe then pops open her canteen to drink and wait for an answer while Jin was thinking of something to say.

"Whatever perils I must face, I will not be alone. For my Sisters will be with me. Death will linger close to us when I am in your service but wouldn't it already be like that if I had been sent off-world? As the Inquisition has originally intended for me." These things were uttered by Jin after some careful deliberation to not say a word she would regret later on.

The Seer placed her index and middle finger together to rub the side of her forehead while she said, "We shall see." During the exchange between the two, Chiyo simply kept sipping tea and bounced her eyes to look back then forth to each person. "How about you, Chiyo?" GeGe suddenly asked to perk the Sister to attention. She merely tilted her head to her side to ask the question to be more specific. "Why were you assign to that decrepit role?" With slight embarrassment, the girl recalled her family history, "Three generations ago, my home world rebelled against the light of the Emperor and the Goddess herself. Once the war ended, most of my family supported the rebels and those who survived committed honorable suicide to avoid capture. My grandfather was part of the ones who worked to redeem his atrocities in the war as an enslaved prisoner. Ever since then, my family has been shunned for supporting the wrong side of history and we work tirelessly to cleanse the sins of our family."

Windows into the Eldar's soul slip out the smallest hint of empathy that both the Sisters can see. "Were your family nobles?" The question came at Chiyo off guard but she just smiles sending radiance before she said, "Oh, I wish. More like merchants who happen to join the military or tried to make as much money as possible. The history is fuzzy but apparently, the family is a splinter branch of a Rogue Trader dynasty. Come to think of it… I don't think anybody alive in my family have seen a real Warren of Trade."

"Trading outside of the Imperium is a special privilege that only Rogue Traders can have." Jin reminded her, "It would not be so special if the Administratum just hands them out to anybody who asks for."

Genevieve also added, "Also, the more Rogue Traders are active, the less exclusive trading with the Imperium seems. For the only way for foreign states to trade with the titanic market of civilization is to either find a Rogue Trader or become a member state."

At this point, for almost ten thousand years have the Imperium of Civilizations have ruled over most of the Milky Way. The very words civilization and Imperium, have become almost indistinguishable to most citizens within the empire as the galactic hegemony keeps growing every day. The growth is only kept in check by Chaos incursions, extra-galactic Xenos, and reawakening Necrons dynasties. In these dark time, it is unsure if the Imperium will survive the final battle to wrestle control all life from the other three threats. Even the safe bunker of states can't last forever against the might of creeping darkness from all sides. It seems the candle of stability flickers in the darkest night before dawn.

"Now that has been most enlightening." The Inquisitor stood up to place a few strudels on a tray for the Sisters to eat. "Oh!" Jin was surprised with raised eyebrows. "We really should depart to check on our comrade, Min-Young." The two then stood up to bow and ask permission to leave. "I suppose can't have you stay there like statues, run along then girls." The way she called her girl makes Jin think of herself like a child compared to the Eldar but at least it wasn't out of offense unlike how she originally thought.

Elsewhere on the ship was a certain Bio-Priest and an Adept who was sorting out information on their next target. To be more precise, the next investigative area to search clues for. "Find all the farms that grow the wild rice near Manchguo." Adalheid blurted out without thinking. Kaidun went to work typing rapidly on the cogitator to find all the locations needed to transfer the data to the cybrid. Once she downloaded the information from the servers, the natural mechanical effectiveness automatically sorted the names and locations relative to the city. "Sightings of Xin in the last year." This order made the Vostroyan feel easier as this was easy to find as it was accessible on the city's Enforcement Record Keep that she had security clearance to rummage through. The data was uploaded through the cable connected to Adalheid's spine for the Bio-Priest to cross-reference by herself. In the recesses of her mind, she matched the known locations of the farms along with the report of sightings from the locals, enforcers, and military to narrow down the area. It became apparent that this left many farms overlapping with sightings making the job slightly smaller. Knowing that it would not be enough, she looked through the latest farms Xin or her followers frequently appeared at in the last month.

That had narrowed down the searching area to only the farming town of Laotong. To Kaidun, the entire process had only taken a few seconds before her eyes, Adalheid merely stared motionlessly and blank at the wall during that time. With lighting speed, the cable ejected from the machine then back into the woman's back as the cybrid suddenly broke off in a quick stride away from her. "Wait up! Where are you going?" Her weak arms couldn't even delay the Mordian marching in the hallway. "Going to tell the Lady Inquisitor." Not pausing or slowing to tell that to the Vostroyan.

Min-Young was drifting back and forth from hibernation to alert too often for the Sister to enjoy. Laying back down on the medical bed after failing to sit up, apparently, her arms refused to work for her. Lacking in energy or motivation, the woman went back to staying still then closed her eyes. Thinking 'I could sure use something spicy to stay awake' while trying to feel if all her fingers and toes work. Then there it was, or the missing feeling where her toes should be. They must have pumped her full of painkillers or sedatives to keep the body immobile for a few hours at least. Lurking fear resurfaced from Min's memory when she realized why some of her toes didn't move. Fresh images of her leg bending to an inhumane angle accompanied by the crackling of bones assaulted the senses. The nose twitched when recalling why she was sweating so much once the pain set in and being reduced to a crying mess. "You signed up for this, didn't you?" Asking nobody when the woman was staring at the ceiling. Coming in from the doorway once the loud sliders shifted open to let the two Sisters in, "That is enough excitement for you today." Min's looked up immediately to Chiyo who said it then try to straighten herself.

Some days later, the Inquisitorial Valkyrie plummet to a lower altitude over the tiny farming town of Laotong. The place had barely a few tens of thousands, leaving plenty of space to grow crops. Once the Inquisitor along with her retinue stepped off the voidcraft, they were swarmed by greedy salesmen and poor beggars who didn't know of the Inquisition. "Handcrafted fabric!" One shouted while another in ragged clothing told them, "The Emperor bless those who give money to the starving." Unwilling to shove her way through the crowd, GeGe ordered Odicar to "Clear them non-violently." To this effect, he drew his Las-pistol to fire into the air. Fizzing steam after the audible venting shot came out of the barrel to catch the attention of the people. They slowly backed away to return to their corner of the streets, allowing the group to pass. "That was rather blunt, Sargent." The Eldar said showing a face of approval. Replying, "Well, you always told me to be direct," as he put back his weapon into the holster.

With a jog, one Enforcer came running up to yell, "Hey! It is illegal to discharge your weapon outside of-". Once he could see the group face-to-face after running passed the crowd, he couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence. First, he saw the man in dark blue flak armor carrying Las weapons, then the Sisters covered in plate armor with bolters, and an Eldar psyker. Worst of all was the Sisters were looking down at him, while the Eldar was holding up the oval black metal plate around her neck with the red and white symbol of the Inquisitors on it. The distinctive white lighting bolt on the specialized red 'I' with a black background told people that whoever wore or carried this was, in fact, an Inquisitor who they must cooperate to the fullest extent of the law. "Oh, I'm sorry!" The man was bowing as he quickly backed away from the four people. The Inquisitor first walked away from him to inside the town and the rest followed to leave the frightened Enforcer alone. 'Don't come back, don't come back.' Though the bowing man as he peeked to make sure they were far enough for him to sneak away.

"Do you think we're being followed?" Asked Odicar next to the Inquisitor.

"Of course we're being followed. This is the Red Armbands we are talking about. A guerrilla force isn't exactly a conventional army." Jin told.

"We could very well be walking passed civilian clothed troops right now as we speak," Chiyo added.

"So, we best stay alerted then." GeGe then picked up her pace to shove past the crowded streets to get near the outskirts of the town. Once the fields were visible, she led the team to inspect the perimeter. Most of it was dirt roads leading back into town and spaces to park the giant farming equipment. Grand scythes attached to tractors with sorting vacuums were lined up near a single road near the trees. The mundane dirt path led back not into town nor the parking space but directly into the woods. She waved her Inquisitorial Plate around to the farmers cleaning up their machines near the road. The Eldar yelled, "Who here knows why this road head into the forest?" To only get scared faces and nervous glances amongst the farmers before somebody spoke up. One frail old man wearing a patchwork of clothing answered first, "Why, this road is used often by hunters to travel into the woods when they go after big game."

"We must talk about this," Jin whispered to GeGe then tilting her head to prompt in discussing this away from the earshot of the locals. Odicar followed the three to form a circle facing each other.

"What did you want to confer with me?" Asked the genuinely curious Seer.

"He is grox-shitting you!" Chiyo was fast to answer with rage much to the surprise of the two off-worlders.

"I do not comprehend."

Jin jumped in and said, "What she means to say is, he thinks all of us are a bunch of off-worlders that he can lie to."

Odicar was confused with the statement, "Come on, what was said is not totally unbelievable."

The Zhongese Sister said, "It wouldn't be if not for the fact the hunting profession is extinct once the planet started building hive-cities back thousands of years ago."

"We are next to Red Armband sympathizers than."

Both the Sisters nodded to confirm her fears. "How do we deal with them?" Odicar said as he checks his gear. "I'll show how we handle them," Jin told the two off-worlders while turning back around to face the old man. Driven by instinct, even the Eldar couldn't react fast enough to stop the Sister aiming her bolter. "Uh?" That was all which could be uttered before Jin fired a shell into the man's chest. Bones, blood, and organs were blown out of the farmer's body when the bolter round detonated inside of the rib cage. "Holy balls!" One farmer shouted as some fled while other cower low to the ground. "What was that for!?" Asking without her stoic Inquisitorial mask for but a moment and holding onto her left shoulder. Jin stood proudly over the corpse to say, "Obstruction of Inquisitorial justice is punishable with death, harboring sympathies is considered treason, and treason has the minimum sentence of enslavement, servitorzaition, or death." Odicar was taken back by this action as he never saw this before and the Eldar almost forgot the Sisters were this fanatical. She continued while ignoring GeGe, "Let this be an example to the rest of you rebel scum, those who help the traitors in any way will meet the same fate. Now, clean up this body and spread this story."

Doing her best to hold her anger, the Eldar said, "Why did you do that?"

"To make an example."

"Things like this only makes matter worst when fighting a guerrilla force."

"From what I understand, cruelty and fear are great motivators to keep the populous in line."

"Actions like that fuel the fires of revolution."

"Not if we are not complacent."

"Any act of kindness can be considered complacency. It is quick to lose control of the people once the government acts anything other than endless fear-mongering and ruthlessness after setting up to rule through terror."

"And what am I to do about it?"

"Just don't do anything like that unless I tell you to do so."

One quick burst of air left Jin's nose after she turns away from looking up at GeGe and walks toward the treeline. "Spread out next to me and advance into the forest for scouting!" Shouted the Inquisitor and giving hand signs to each person on where they should be positioned.

The more the group followed the road, the more it had footprints and trail lines on it. Deep prints in the dirt told GeGe that people were moving about the forest recently. Then she spotted even older markings on the trees more often as they went deeper into the woods. These cuts into the trees could be instructions or directions, but to her, all it looked like were random symbols and arrows. Then after a good hour of hiking, they stumbled upon some sort of encampment. "This is no hunter's lodge," The Scion said, "I see camouflage nets and ammo crates." He then lowered his visors as he crouched down. "No heat signatures here my Lady." The Seer follows suit by concentrating to sense all living things within a kilometer radius and detected no sentient beings other than her retinue. "I found none as well, but proceed with caution." GeGe then ordered her group to sweep and clear the camp of any hostiles.

Unsurprisingly, after the camp was cleared, they didn't find anybody left in the camp. "Don't disturb anything but find clues as to where they went!" She ordered her group. One unsettling sight which caught her attention was a poorly dug mass grave next to the dugout where the camp kept the ammo crates. "Odicar, help me dig out a body." As GeGe already started digging with her bare hand. "Sure, why not, another corpse another day. I just love to get dirty."Odicar said.

"I enjoy your enthusiasm, Sargent."

"Was that sarcasm?"

"Was it not obvious?"

"Umm… Try working on the tone of your voice."

"I will take note of that, Odicar."

With a grunt, both of them pulled out a body from the dirt that barely kept him under the ground. What she saw a most ghastly body. Pale white was he as if never held blood within. The part of the neck where the blood must have lost, looked to be almost ripped off with many puncturing bite marks by very sharp fangs. "Vampires?" The Sargent asked. To that, The Eldar only pointed at the neck to give an answer of confirmation. Now the dots were connecting in her head, it was not Warpcraft that kept Xin immortal nor technology, but a C'Tan shard. She didn't start the rebellion to gain favor with the Dark Gods but for personal ownership of the world. Holtstein didn't lay low trying to influence a planet for his own sake but was working with Xin to declare independence at the same time. Unknown to both of these vampires, they were being given intents of cooperation without knowing each other. This was done by whichever C'Tan god's mysterious plan that the shards came from or from the very shards themselves. The Inquisitor never did find out what truly drives them to plan out the things they do. What she does know is that all vampires work to destroy or rule over Imperial society and that it is her job to prevent that from happening.

"There is something you would like to see, Inquisitor!" Yelled Jin as she waved a dataslate above her. Once the Eldar was close enough to her, she threw the item so that the Inquisitor can catch it effortlessly. Genevieve's emerald eyes started fast in reading through the useless junk first like how the logistician's complain about food shortages and footwear misplacement. Then she stumbles upon an interesting entry on mining equipment being transferred to another camp, not merely man-portable machines but vehicles that can drill through mountains as well. "The collapsed ruins!" GeGe said in an outburst to cause Jin to question, "What?" Slowly the thought formed in the Eldar's mind about how the ruin's walls were not made like its an, "Armory..." The word trailing off from her mouth as she realized the mask was not made to protect against radiation. It was made to enhance the physical body by absorbing radiation. She got up to walk toward the Sisters, "Chiyo, use the voxcaster to call in Adalheid to this position. We have a bat to catch."

 

 


	8. Time

_"The End Times will be upon us once the clock strikes midnight, we're just delaying the inevitable."_

_\- Recounting the Imperial Civil War_

"What do you mean Ordo Xenos is intervening!? Well, I don't care. Just do whatever you can to slow them down!" GeGe was getting scared on her voidcraft after yelling into her vox-caster.

Now, it was up to Bruta to do what he can to try to delay the shuttles descending on the planet. Odicar jumped off the Valkyrie while Adalheid climbed up. "I'm afraid you and your Scions would be too soft and would slow us down. I only need merely a minimal force to lure the target while preventing causalities." The Sargent only said, "Don't worry about that, victory is all that matters,"

Contrary to what he thought, he nodded his head as if he cared little. She turned to ask the Tech-Priest. "Who in the name of Khaine's fiery ass is the Inquisitor interfering in my investigation!"

The blond quickly retrieved the information within a few nanoseconds and said, "Inquisitor Reynaard, apparently". She thought, That stupid Teuton, as she clenched her teeth to make a very ungraceful face of rage. Then she slammed her fist into the voidcraft's interior wall before she said, "I will not have another Mandall IV on my watch!" Afterwards, she commanded the pilot to leave immediately with her strike team.

During her apprenticeship under a full-fledged Inquisitor, there was a terrible rumor circulating around about Reynaard. On the planet of Mandall IV, Reynaard seems to have discovered an alien-worshipping cult within a district. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, except the local Orders Securitas had not been tracking them and that the cult was planning to invite the world to open rebellion. He tried to deal with the cult by himself with a Deathwatch Kill-Team who would have slaughtered all of the cultists. In the battle to eliminate the cult, the civilian population along with the city's governmental forces turned on them to have him barely escape. Even the local Sisters-who are supposed to be only loyal to the Inquisition and Emperor-tried to kill the Deathwatch Marines. Reynaard would later come back with half a million Guardsmen and wipe out the city to non-existence. Civilians that didn't resist were allowed to live in prison colonies while POWs were hanged in the city streets after all of the city was demolished.

Unless they were in the same system when the Battle of Mandall IV took place, nobody was sure how much of that was true. The Eldar never did look further into the matter. For all, she knew most of it was Warpshit but she wasn't going to risk it. Here, on a world with hive-cities, GeGe was not going to test how much mercy will be shown when Reynaard might exterminate a city of a billion people. She was convinced that she had to get to Xin before Reynaard did.

Kaidun and Zau were running late to leave with the Inquisitor as they carried their Portable Astropathic Caster or PAC for short. It was a stocky metal machine where one can stick a humanoid head in with cables and wires connecting the psyker with the device. Surprising durability made the PAC come into use among the Imperial Army to coordinate orbital bombardment or other support fire doctrines. That same durability is due to the heavy metal case protecting it, leading to those who carried it to complain about its weight. In part, the cutdown from the stationary version of the astropathic caster also stripped many of the safety features. Short-circuiting, breakdowns, feedback loops, and electrocutions are rare for the PAC but compared that to the astropathic caster, which almost never has these problems, the PAC is inferior. The two lugged the cases to pull them into the Valkyrie with heat building up from their exercise. They didn't break a sweat but they knew it was going to be much tougher once the team hit planetside.

* * *

 

"Ferdammt!" Inquisitor Reynaard yelled while stroking his brown hair.

The Sisters were shoving this huge Las cannon with audible metal scraping along the ramp. "Do you know how delicate this weapon is!?" said Reynaard to only get blank stares from the Sisters pushing it. The cannon was a monstrously large thing that was at least two meters high and it did hold deadly munitions for both the crew and target on the side.

"It seems illogical to order the tech-priest to make this absurdly wasteful metal case." The Sister-Superior standing right next to the Inquisitor said. Indeed it was by bribing, lying, and stealing did Reynaard came up with a convincing enough of a reason for the tech-priest to make it. The Sister continued on, "I mean if we could all die from radiation poisoning, why not let the servitors handle it?" Then raising one brow to the seemingly suicidal tendencies of Reynaard.

"Because I don't trust lobotomized husks to be carrying, loading, and pushing radioactive batteries around that eventually will end up leaking to kill us all." Reynaard was running out of patience after explaining the same thing twice to Sister-Superior Palestrina.

* * *

 

Bruta was jogging quick enough to catch suspecting eyes from the crew of the INS Vault but just slow enough not to be asked any questions or be stopped. They are depending on me, He thought to himself when nearing the bridge. The hallways were vast metal tunnels decorated in the way of columns, stoic Makedonian statues, and vast geometric shapes to hold the ceiling up. As soon as the hydraulics slid open the doors to the room, his eyes were bombarded with the nostalgic sight of men and woman scurrying around like insects in this advance voidship. First, the former naval officer walked past the typers and howlers at the outer edge of the room, who would type out messages and howl orders through the vox caster, respectively. Then came the tech-priest and officers that kept track of their machines and crew, respectively, but also gave him funny looks as he walked past them. They were most fiddling with cogitators, valves, and levers with the occasional holo display.

Finally, he got up to the captain's deck which was the highest part of the bridge and the only place where one can look down to keep track of all the other officers. This was where he saw Captain Bordeau sitting on his swivel chair with his holo display that showed the planet of Zhong. "What brings a representative of the Inquisition to my humble ship?" Then offering a cup of wine to Bruta which he only held up his hand in refusal. Back on his warship, Bruta only ever drank alcohol while docked or off-duty, and he was on duty today.

"Maybe next time, right now I need a clear head. You know I bring with me an urgent request." That had solicited a single nod from the captain.

"And you must know I am under no obligation to follow the orders of an Inquisitor as I answer to the Imperial Navy first and foremost."

He knew that within a warship, the orders of the captain was second only to the Imperial Family, thus the surest way to command the ship to help GeGe was to convince the captain that it was within his best interest to help her. "Hear me out first, the request is to position your ship over these coordinates then fire on that location." Bruta handed him the dataslate that held all the information for the operation.

"You do know I'll be firing right next to a hive-city?"

"Yes."

"Can you tell me why?"

"Classified."

"Do I have to use a lance battery?"

"Yes."

"Why not a smaller ordinance?"

"Classified."

"Your not making a very convincing argument here." Bordeau placed the dataslate on the table that had the holo adapter in the center and was looking at Bruta as if he was insane.

"I know this may seem bad-"

"Bad? Bad! What you are asking for is my career suicide, countless civilian deaths, destruction of property, and tarnishing the honor of the Imperial Navy."

"If you must know, the building has been abandon for years with nobody is living near or on that place. There is glory to be won here if you have the initiative to seize it. There will be accommodations and fame if this operation is successful. Not to mention we will finally put a stop to a very powerful and bloody monster if you help the Inquisition."

The second and third sentence caught the captain's attention, "You do know I will be disobeying a direct order from the admiralty if I leave port?"

"You can blame me or the Inquisitor for forcing you to obey my instructions. Like... I held you hostage or threatened to detonate bombs in the ships to coerce you. I don't care, I'm just pleading with you to cooperate with me here so that the Inquisition can finally depart from this system."

Bordeau thought for a moment and swerved away in his chair to stare out his porthole. This particular decision could wreak his entire life and ruin his career but the slightest possible chance for him to be propelled to previously believed unattainable fame or glory for his family, in the end, swayed him. It didn't help most of the time the fleet was docked in a backwater system and the only time there was action was when fighting a few Ork Freebooter voidship. No, this was surely a deliverance from Deus himself to allow Bordeau to make a name for himself. He would remember to thank the officer's Katholian priest for praying with him.

"Fine, but if this goes sideways-"

"Yes, yes, the Inquisition will take the fall."

* * *

 

She could practically smell it, if not for the dirt, dust, and sweat that covered most of her followers. From this day forth, she will ascend from the title "Merciless" to "Conquerer". Just like that one ancient Tarren duc who used to be called "Bastard" before becoming "Conquerer", indeed, today was going to be her Hasting. The sweet fragrance of victory was beckoning her onward deeper and deeper into the ruin.

"Faster! Work faster! Imperialist Grox' are already headed to this location as I speak. We can’t let the revolution die with us in these tunnels."

Now, the vampire was walking back and forth inspecting the ruin to check if it could collapse on them at the moment. Then an officer ran up to salute her and handed her a map with circles and lines drawn on.

"Sir, we picked up vox chatter from a landing zone a few clicks east of here and they are slowly moving to our site."

Xin began rubbing her chin, "I take it they didn't use Imperial Guard codes?"

"No, something even more complicated apparently."

"The Inquisition..."

"Another similarly coded vox chatter a few clicks north of here," He would point at the spot just right next to where the other contact was, "but they haven't moved yet."

"Two? This will be tricky, but no matter. Most of us will die today, however, this planet will be independent so I sware to all the gods out there."

The last sentence had the effect of giving the man fear and a sense of purpose. When it came down to it, he knew life as a rebel was a dangerous one but he didn't want to die. For on Zhong, there were things worse than death for traitors. But it reassured him that his death wasn't going to be in vain if he knew his home could break free from the oppression of the Imperium, and to live free without the decrees from fable Terra or be crushed beneath the Imperial War Economy.

Now it was getting close enough that Xin didn't need to hold herself back anymore,"Leave some explosives and clear out this section," then pointing the exit for her subordinates to leave her alone.

"What about you?" One officer asked.

"Don't you worry about me, these things need a delicate touch and I prefer it if nobody else is harmed if this messes up."

Her followers had gotten used to seeing Xin do and order strange things before so this didn't seem too unusual. There were times when the men saw even odder things like bloodless corpses from the times when she personally tortures people or displays of super-human strength. They rushed out carrying their equipment and tools while only leaving behind the commander and some boxes. Once the soldiers were well beyond earshot, she began placing the mining explosives where they were originally going to be placed and used her microbead,"When you hear the explosions, wait for 10 minutes for the all clear." Walking up close to the last bit of rubble, it appeared to be the last physical barrier preventing her from overthrowing the planetary-governor. All else after that was merely nuance to be brushed aside, as the walls, tanks, and guards of the nobles on Zhong could do little to stop her from exterminating them. Yes, she even doubted the Inquisition could have an actual impact in preventing her revolution. The vision of planning out a revolt like back in Manchuguo but instead of on just one hive-city, this happened on all of the hive-cities at the same time was now possible.

With bombs in place, Xin flipped the switch to detonate them to cause an ear-deafening boom as the noise reverberated off of the empty walls. Then she ran to what should have been a hole to only be disappointed when there were still stones in the way but nothing she couldn't handle. At first, the vampire only ripped out chunks of the stone after turning her nails into metal claws yet that wasn't fast enough. It was only a matter of time before the Red Armbands came running in to see her like this, not yet, it was still not her time reveal to the Imperium who she really was. She still needs Zhong to act as her armor before moving on to the next phase of her plan. In quick succession, the claws join together to form into a makeshift drill as her flesh ripped itself apart at the wrist. Then the bones in the hand started to rotate incredibly fast as if there was not a thing attaching it from the rest of the arm. If one were to look at the wrist under a microscope, they can see on a cellular level that the hands were no longer attached to the arms, but they act as if they still do while spinning like a machine. Under the constant pull of magnetics to keep the metal bones in place and the manipulation of gravity to force a rotation, Xin was able to put some holes into the stones before finally being able to kick down the whole thing.

It was a tough process but there were only a few drops of sweat from her when she entered the room. The air was stale from being left undisturbed for millenniums however some things did erode over time. Such was the case when she gazed upon a skeleton half-buried underneath a boulder. All manner of weapons lined up on the right wall of the room and can safely be assumed that there was a guard detail stationed here during the collapse. Most commonly were Las-carbines, the predecessor to the Las-gun was in the hands of the dead or spilled over from the rack. A whole lot of good that did for them as now the las shots couldn't stop them from being buried alive.

There it was stuck to the wall, the mask with a red jewel and tiny spikes protruding from the sides. She might have been able to believe it if the mask was made of metal or other tough substance, but it was clearly stone or something similar. To think that a stone mask of all things was perfectly preserved underneath a hive-city in a cave. Carefully, she cradled the ominous craftsmanship into her hands as she heard footsteps from far behind her. Like a babe in a mother's arm, Xin genteelly examines the front and back when her men ran up to her.

"We didn't hear your all clear, sir." One officer was the first to speak after catching his breath from running.

"Ah uh..."

"So we waited then came in to check on you, sir."

"Yup..." Her mind was clearly distant from the conversation when the eyes moved up to the red gem and down to the hole where a person would speak, undressing the stone layers to imagine what the insides looked like. "We did it," Saying these three words as the vampire held up the relic into the air with one hand,"The liberation of Zhong can truly begin!"

"Is it true? Can this really turn the tide of the war?" Some timid rebel from the back asked.

"With this stone mask, I can evolve into an unstoppable being who can brush aside armies or forts."

"And there is nothing the Imperialist can do anything about it!"

"Not the governor, PDF, Imperial Guard, or the Inquisitors can do anything from preventing me from overthrowing the useless sacks of Warpshit that 'rules' this planet."

"Victory and Blood!" Xin's lieutenant shouted.

This was followed by more rebels chanting,"Victory and Blood!" as they raised their fist into the air everytime they said blood. The years of infiltrating, assassination, and sabotage had come to fruition for Xin. From bleeding to death on Dai'Nam to being sired by a vampire, then moving to Zhong and starting her little war. All of it took decades of work to pull off and she was sure proud of it now. It now would be that the pride was just short of falling into arrogance. Still, something didn't sit right with her in the entire matter. Like at the back of her mind, there was a nagging feeling to start her small crusade after she left Dai'Nam, but it didn't feel like the thought came from her own consciousness. More along the line of somebody or something forced the idea into her mind. She should probably investigate who that old vampire was when he sired her and if he had done anything to her mind during the process but that was something she could deal with later. For now, there was a small detail of overthrowing the local government and ousting the Imperialists from the planet.


	9. Apex

_"For good or ill, nobility comes from the power of an individual to shape their world. Via inheritance, blood, or action."_

_-_ _Elanoc o Glenth_

The endless well of power was breaking out into the surface of the stone mask. Such a frail physical vessel was the only thing containing Xin from grabbing power from the Imperium on this simple Hive world. The lack of sunlight made the stone surface on the mask cool to the touch. She slid her fingertips along the smooth weapon if it was a weapon that is. Maybe not when it was originally created but certainly once she has worn it. There was quite a bit of faith that the vampire was putting in the piddly little thing to aid her. What choice did she have to begin with, once the Inquisition started to corner her all the plans were accelerated.

"Do you think I made the right call ordering the attack on the vaults?" Playing with the mask in her hand and asking her lieutenant.

"Not my position to say... But I think you made the right call."

"How so?"

"It bought time and we need as much time as we can get with the Imperials on our asses."

Smiling at the thought of all the things she's done since she left home to join the Imperial Guard. The red jewel reminded her of the only expensive thing in her home back on Dixie. She saw how pretty her mother looked with the ruby necklace around her neck when going to the annual harvest festival. Her parents probably died 250 years ago and the matter was discarded to bring Xin back to attend the matter at hand. There were still Imperials waiting for her to leave the underground ruins and caves, from the looks of things, they were definitely Inquisitorial. Now, the question came down to if she would be facing down the barrel of Las-guns from Scion Stormtroopers or bolters from Sisters.

"How long until sunrise?"

"It came up while you were digging, sir."

"So much for dueling at noon."

"Excuse me, sir?"

"You won't get the reference."

* * *

 

 

"Throw off the yoke of Imperial oppression my ass!" Inquisitor Reynaard was laughing while sitting down on his collapsible chair. The sun was barely rising and already the Teuton was drinking himself to drown. The Sisters were pushing the behemoth of a weapon to line up directly to the exit of the ruin. Fallen columns, broken metal doors, and gigantic stone slabs litter the only entrance and exit of the place. The plan would be to wait out the rebels by sitting at the exit and blocking food or water resupplies into the ruins. Once the enemy is starved out, they would either have to sally out or hand over their leader. In both cases, Reynaard wins with the freaky UV Cannon killing Xin. She would die in combat or by execution.

"You know, if it weren't for the Imperium, they would already be food for the Tyranids in M36! This world would have been a welcoming rug for the Hive fleets." Sister-Superior Palestrina was getting ready for one of his drunk rants again.

"Yes, Inquisitor. We learned this in Basic."

"This vampire threat is small fries compared to the Genstealer Wars back then. Get it? Small fries, because I'm about to turn a vampire crispy!" Then going on to laugh at his own joke that Palestrina didn't find funny at all.

"Is he out of his mind!?" Genevive yelling into the vox-caster while trudging through the mud that the last night's rain conjured.

"No, just drunk." The Securitas Sister on the other end of the vox calmly spoke.

"Tell him radiation weapons won't work!"

"Sorry, my Lady. He is set on using the UV Cannon. I don't think I can sway him."

"Cursed servitor!" Then slamming the cord vox phone back onto the vox-caster in anger. The rage was practically radiating from GeGe and it didn't help that those around her adopted some of this mood. Lacking the war mask means the emotions of a powerful Eldar psyker can overwhelm those nearby. Thankfully, GeGe wasn't a strong psyker, so the only mood that the three Sisters and two comm officers felt was a hint of anger. Adalheid relied upon emotion logic engines to feel most things so the wave of psyker energy did little to nothing to anger her. This is nothing like the enveloping sadness or bloodthirsty rage that some Eldar Inquisitors have reported their retinue suffer from.

"She's coming out, sir!" Palestrina brought to Raynaard's attention. There was movement in the darkness of the ruin exit but it was clear that there were many people running to take cover.

"Uh? How can you be sure?"

"Both the scouts and Auspexes confirm it, sir. There is somebody walking in the middle of the rebel group with a low body temperature."

"Fine! Ready the UV Cannon!"

Xin was walking slowly into the sunlight and stood still in the center of the exit once she could see properly. Sisters were lined up along the ridge surrounding the ruin, all ready to take shots at her and the rebels. It was a funny thing to consider how hard it was to see anything through a stone mask with a few millennium of decay. Standing still to feel the tension in the atmosphere, both sides were set to shoot each other to pieces at a moment's notice. Unnerving steely stares could be seen from the Sisters to look down upon the sweaty rebels.

"Your insurrection ends here! Surrender peacefully and nobody has to be harmed." What Raynaard forgot to mention was even if Xin surrendered, she was still facing execution.

"I'll take my chances with you, Inquisitor!" Shouting back to make it clear how confident she was.

He raised his hand into the air before bringing it down to say, "UV Cannon, fire!" Then the huge thing started up with the blinking green lights to show where it was going to be irradiating. The green lights were shooting beams straight at where the rebel leader was standing. UV lights, X-ray, and Gamma rays bombarded the area where Xin was standing. That should have started to kill her as the radiation would have negative reactions from the C'tan shard within the body. The xenos material inside her being eating the host's body from the inside-out. There was also another reaction but this was from the stone mask. The red jewel was shinning and sparkling so intensely that all those who gazed upon the vampire had to block her with their hand. The object extended claws to dig into the sides of Xin's face from all over the edge of the mask. Immediately, the radiation was absorbed by the stone mask to power it to become integrated with the user. Nanites were injected from the claws to the veins than all throughout the rest of the vampire's body. These microscopic machines started to absorb the radiation within the cells to convert them into surplus energy. The shard stopped trying to devour the host once it noticed the lack of radiation but the flesh and bones were unimaginably revitalized.

"Oh, how good it feels to be alive again!"

"Gods! What are you doing you imbecile?" The Eldar caught the attention of Reynaard after tugging him away from the blinding shine of the red jewel.

"Ah, I would say good to see you too, Genevieve. But now is not the best time."

"Stop that weapon dame you! Stop it at once!"

"Shut it down!" He started to wave at the weapons crew operating the thing when they tried to turn it off, but it was clear that there was trouble with the machinery. For a few seconds, there was nothing but constantly firing the beams until GeGe drew her Shuriken pistol to fill the cannon with micro discs. When the weapon was smoking from the equipment failure, it was already too late as Xin slowly staggered forward in the dust-filled air that swirled around her. In the short moment of clarity for the Eldar to see, there were cracks in the stone mask from an unknown origin but she suspected it's the last activation that finally destroyed it. Bits and pieces of stone fell from the mask then the entire facade broke apart to come suddenly lay low on the ground. Fangs bare for all to see, the Red Armbands along with the Inquisitors feared the worst.

"Fire at will!"

Even before Reynaard could finish his last word, his Sisters already made ready to shoot at the vampire. "This abomination!" Was all Palestrina said with religious zeal and hatred, before being the first to fire upon the monster with a bolter. GeGe knew that if she stood and fight, it would be a fruitless endeavor as there was no weapon at hand to stop the beast. In an act of tactical decision making, she knew that Reynaard wouldn't budge, so she would have to leave him to die to delay the vampire.

"Adalheid, delay Xin and stay with Inquisitor Reynaard."

"Yavol, meine Lady."

"Everybody else with me! We are moving to Plan Beta!" Genevieve was about to rush off when the Inquisitor grabbed her shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going, coward?"

"I? Going to actually stop this beast instead of dying like you."

Just as GeGe and those in tow ran away from the firefight near the ruin, things were about to become more bloody for the Imperials. The Red Armbands fired their Autoguns, Stubbers that have an automatic rate of fire, to only have the slugs bounce off of the Vandire-pattern Power Armor harmlessly. On the other hand, the Sisters fired their bolters to have the shells rip through the flak or plate armor the rebels worn then explode inside their bodies. Soon one Sister spotted Xin taking cover behind a stone slab with a rebel squad, she would throw a frag grenade over from a boulder that she and several other Sisters were taking cover at. In reaction, the vampire grew out wings from her back with all the bones, flesh, and blood that came along with it. Suddenly, her body tore open slits on her back to accommodate for the oversize bat wings. All the insides coming out caused one of the new Red Armband rebel to vomit after turn away from the quick display of augmentation. When the Sister was about to throw the grenade after counting to two seconds, Xin already predicted it and had two fully grown wings to start flapping.

As the grenade flew into the air, the gust of wind generated from the vampire was so strong that the explosive flew back to where it came from. When the grenade blew up in midair, many of the Sisters were hit unexpectedly from shrapnel from above them. One of them lay bleeding from an eye socket as the metal shrapnel broke through her helmet and another had her arms bend backward when one of the motors got hit. There were screams from the wounded yet the few that weren't harmed fired back at Xin when she advanced towards them. Bolter shell after shell connected with their target to only cause the vampire to stagger. What was even worst and puzzling, was that none of the shells detonated once they buried themselves inside the target. Adalheid analyzed the air around Xin to figure out at least, that the vampire was manipulating the chemical composition to nullify the detonation of the shells, and whatever else that she couldn't detect with her builtin tools. Then, the vampire put her hands behind her head to push her abdomen out. At first, everybody was looking at this pose in curiosity until bolter shells came flying out of her flesh. Xin's body was overclocking itself when rearming the bolter shells inside the body then spitting it back out.

"How the Hal-"

The Red Armband didn't get to finish his sentence when one of the shells being spat back out to hit him, then exploding to send his guts flying out of his body. "Take cover!" Came from a Sister but it was already too late. Several Sisters and many of the Red Armbands were hit by the shells as Xin fired indiscriminately. It was a macabre dance of bolter fire coming from Xin that killed many. The Sisters' Power Armor could handle stubber and las shots but would creak and break under bolter fire, they were not Space Marines. Many more of the Sisters were brought low to be humbled from the impossible defense of the vampire. Ones who were lucky died a quick painless death, those that were unlucky lay screaming on the ground drowning in their own blood. Some had their limbs bending in unnatural angles as their bones snapped from the positions. Others had their suit of armor punctured and the shells detonated inside to tear out chunks of their bones and flesh.

"Stand back, Inquisitor!" Adding the alert emote to her voice module while holding out an arm to keep Reynaard back from approaching near the vampire.

"My, my. Afraid are we?" Still flapping her wings to keep herself hovering a few centimeters above the ground.

"Fear? I know not such a notion!"

"Such bravado can't save you now, Inquisitor. Neither can this little Bio-priest."

In several quick motions, Adalheid was able to grab Xin by the neck and entrench her fingers into the flesh after jumping a meter into the air. The sheer weight or momentum of the metal Bio-priest tackling the vampire caused both of them to roll on down from the ridge. Dust and dirt from the tumble didn't inhibit Adalheid from drawing out a drill attached to her spine to try to rip out Xin's heart.

"Oh no, you don't!"

The vampire quickly grabbed the drill with her metal claws to rip it off of Adalheid's back. She would then go on to send both of her hands with claws into the stomach of the Bio-priest. Once her claws were firmly planted inside of Adalheid, she mustered all of her strength into ripping her in half. Presumingly, everything below where the navel was one part of the body which slump over after Xin was done tearing. The upper part of the body was sent flying away behind Xin with arms and all. Before the mandatory power-saver shutdown of most of her systems could occur, Adalheid sent out a single coded message back to Genevieve.

"This isn't good."

The Eldar didn't like it one bit how fast it took for the Bio-priest to lose the fight. It should have taken at least a good few minute for the tough Mordian to get ripped to shreds.

"Jin, get inside that crate. Min, climb into that air duct. Chiyo, hide in the next room. Now, wait until I say 'Arrogant' to engage the target."

She got to work setting up the demolition charges on the columns holding up the ceiling and one explosive to blow open a wall between Chiyo and her. These things were about as powerful as the 120mm Armor-Piercing High Explosive shells that the Leman Russ Battle Tank uses, meaning the Eldar and her Sisters had to get off the floor when they went off. Unless they wanted to die from either the collapsing debris or shock-wave.

"Tremble before me!"

The voice literally carried with it a sonic tide that made the Reynaard's ears bleed. Legs buckled but didn't falter from what the vampire did.

"What are you? You can't just grow wings when you're a Strigoi!"

"I? I have evolved beyond one bloodline, can't you see?"

As monstrous as Xin appeared to the untrained eye, she was even more disgusting to the trained sight. Wings grown and snarling like the Nosferatu bloodline, the unusually powerful physics manipulation similar to Lahmia, and the raw strength of Strigoi. The sudden stillness between the adversaries was broken by Palestrina who fired a few shots while charging with a Chainsword. Shells were all caught within the vampire's palm before any of them could connect with the torso. Once she was in melee range, the Sister-Superior brought down the weapon to slice into the right hand then dropped the bolt-pistol to push with both hands. Meanwhile, Xin fired out the bolter shells with the other hand to send Reynaard flat on his back bleeding.

"You poor thing."

With a face of genuine care at the sheer hopelessness that Palestrina ran into, she dug her left hand into the neck of the Sister to cause her to bleed. That had only made the women more determined to thrust the blade all the way through the hand then rip open the shoulder of the vampire. Screaming from the pain before she used her claws to pull out the spine from the neck with the head of the Sister still attached. Crimson red flowed from the flesh of the neck down the spine and onto the tongue of Xin. She wore the still life face prior to her death that the vampire enjoyed staring. There was almost regret in her mind when she looked down at the lifeless torso. The substance she tasted made every bit of it worth savoring. Even a bit of arousal was there when contemplating with the thought of having Palestina being an offspring that she sired. It would have been nice if not for her stubborn defense of the Inquisitor.

Reynaard looked on in horror as he came onto his feet. He had seen babes torn open from pregnant mothers as blood sacrifices and countless corpses litter a battlefield. Yet this was something different, the pleasure taken in the slaughter of a sapient person was rarely seen for those who worked in Ordo Xenos. The fearful efficiency in a single hand stroke to tear out bones did instill caution in his heart. Such a thing was seen the last time fighting a daemon or a Flayed One.

"Tremble before me!"

Screaming again to force the Inquisitor to block out the voice with both of his hands.

"Tremble before me!"

Repeating the same thing over and again until Reynaard had enough of it. Drawing his bolt pistol, he shot four rounds at Xin's four limbs. He had hoped that the rounds would make the vampire lose her balance. In the last moments, before the shells could connect, she jumped a good meter or two into the air then came back down onto the soil. Much to the surprise of Reynaard, Xin's flesh opened up into with holes covering the entire body. The air flow around the vampire's body was being manipulated to be repelled away from her, creating a visible air bubble for the Inquisitor to see. Everything inside her lungs was sucked out through the holes to form the air bubble before giving a smirk at Reynaard and jumping back down the ridge.

"What? Come back here you Grox!"

Yelling and running after Xin before he himself was sliding down to the firefight still raging between the Red Armbands and the Sisters.

"Tremble before me."

This time also repeating like before but the words were not loud, more like a soft whisper that only he could hear. Bewildered, he searched his surroundings to try to find where the words were coming from. In reality, the voice wasn't coming from any particular direction that the Inquisitor could know. The words were mouthed from Xin before forming an artificial vibration in the air bouncing in random directions. So once he heard the same line drilled into his head, he could only sense it coming from every which way he moved his ears.

"Show yourself, coward!"

"This is a battle, not a duel. I am under no obligation to face you like in an honorable challenge."

He didn't notice where the words were truly arriving from before his legs were sliced from behind at the kneecaps by Xin. Turning back to look and drawing his Power Sword to cut into nothing but air while falling to his knees, he was involuntarily shaking from the pain at his limbs. When turning back to look at his legs under him, the air distortion dissolved to reveal the vampire standing in front of him the entire time. The light being diverted around the air bubble finally halted to begin drawing Xin out of invisibility.

"Any last words?"

This was received with a bloody spit to the ground left of Reynaard before he grimaced at Xin.

"So be it."

In one swift motion, the vampire drew her fangs out to sink then tear out his throat in a bloody fashion. A clearly defined leak at the neck spread out to cover the head of the rebel leader. Bathing in the radiant afterglow of the kill, she indulged in the food before her while there was slaughter encompassing her.

"One down, now for the other one."

* * *

 

Kaidun's heart was beating incredibly fast from the fact this is her first time out in the field with the Inquisitor. Her job was nothing more than to report when Xin has arrived within the compound. The dead manufactorum was just a shell of a building where all the machinery were stripped of. All lined up along the walls were stoic chiseled men and women holding up the floors, she could even see some of the gold paint was even peeling off from the glob map of Zhong in the lobby. The outer walls had mosaic portraits of soldiers or vehicles that it would be supplying. It once produced ammo and war machines but now laid abandoned for a few centuries. There were portraits of Astartes wearing their sharp pauldrons, Guardsmen on Anti-Grav Bikes, and an Imperial Navy rate in front of bright solar sails of voidships. Vagabonds and nomades do take shelter under these rusting roofs from time to time but they were all cleared out by the Securitas Sisters that Genevieve brought with her.

Zau placed a calming hand on her shoulder before he said,"Peace, this will be an easy job."

"My зад will this be an easy job. You do know we are up against a vampire that even Genevieve 'The Defanger' o Alayran is afraid of."

"I mean she doesn't truly fear it, besides, all you have to do is to report to GeGe when Xin is near the building."

"What do mean 'She doesn't truly fear it'? I could tell from the way she rushes thing when we were setting up she was scared. She tries to act either uncaring or angry but I know she's frightened deep down inside."

She then shifted about on her belly as she brought out her auspex and monocular while laying flat on her stomach on the soil.

"Picking up something flying on the motion sensors!"

Kaidun brought the lens to her left eye to see a blurry thing moving really fast in the skies, then it focused to show that it was a person with wings.

"Well, that's definitely not a Swooping Hawk or Shreik."

At once she told pressing the microbeads to her throat to pick up the vibrations that the neck made, "Target is approaching the zone."

"Understood."

* * *

 

It was amusing to Xin that the mortals thought they would have a chance facing her. The almost immortal Eldar was arrogant enough to think that she could beat her but the almost immoral Eldar can still die from mortal dangers whilst she can't. For all intensive purposes, she was truly immortal. Death by time, illness, or any other mortal danger was something this ascended vampire was completely immune to.

When entering the compound, she trailed her hand along the dusty walls and stair rails. The lifts and the cables that pulled them were as well taken from this place when it was stripped of all machinery. Once the vampire was on the emergency stairway on the second floor, she made a very loud click using her tongue. Knowing there was nobody on this floor, Xin walked up to the third floor.

Jin-Hau heard a click from far outside of the room, she didn't know if it came from this floor or not. GeGe, on the other hand, heard the far off footsteps coming closer then stop to have them quicken while moving away. What are you up to? Thought the Eldar in silence when her palms became clammy. The tension was practically thick enough for her to touch with her fingertips. Whirling sounds from somewhere broke the stillness in the environment, it was muffled but for sure was getting louder. When the Inquisitor realized where the shaking was coming from, it was too late,"You arrogant bit-".

The vampire burst out from under the floor before GeGe could finish her sentence. Claws were already digging into the left leg of the Eldar when the Sisters could do anything in reaction. As much of a heightened reflexes that the Sisters had, they were still in the end, Humans. Gods! The panic-stricken Eldar thought when bringing her sword to slash at the hand holding her in place. Right as the weapon was about to connect with the wrist of the vampire, Xin disconnected that hand from her arm and jumped up to enter the room. While GeGe sliced nothing but air, the Sister all came in guns blazing. Jin kicked open the large crate that she was hiding in, Min slid down the air duct to land on both her legs standing upright and Chiyo detonated explosives to breach the wall then run through the hole. Xin was fast to counteract them by kicking her leg to send her foot detached and knock out the air from Min. The Sister would slump down to the floor while grabbing the foot lodged into her breastplate with the toes latching onto the metal. Jin tried to fire her bolter but something was happening to her target's eyes. Light beams from the eyes tore through the bolter the Sister was holding to then slice open both of her hands, making Jin drop the weapon in blood and pain. Chiyo decided to try clubbing the vampire over the head with her bolter, but that was stopped by Xin backhanding her to send the Sister flying back to hit the wall behind her.

Chiyo was panicking when the motors didn't respond to her movements. They must have been knocked out when she slammed into the wall and now, the woman could barely move the heavy metal plates or machinery that was her Power Armor. Her very own protection was threatening to end up as her metal coffin if nothing changes.

In the midst of the fighting, GeGe fired her Shuriken pistol at point blank range at the chest of the vampire. The micro discs peeled open the flesh of Xin to reveal the metal ribcage under the soft bits. That had only warranted a hardy laugh from the rebel before she punched the Eldar in the gut and send her flying back.

"This is too easy! At least that cog bugger actually delayed me, how pathetic."

GeGe tried to get up to her feet but that had only resulted in her vomiting when the body caught up with the blow. This had caused the vampire to laugh again while walking toward the Inquisitor. The only thing that made Xin pause was when the Eldar threw a grenade into the chest of her.

"Uh oh," Was all Xin got to say before the melta bomb exploded to send the metal bones flying in every which way. The head, torso, arms, and legs were split from each other with the detonation.

"Fall back!" The Inquisitor told while waving away both Jin and Min, who've managed to tear away the foot still trying to dig into her plates. The Zhongese held up looking at her bleeding hands then ran out of the room as fast as her legs could take her. Min, on the other hand, was holding the blood in with a hand on her gut while dragging herself out. Chiyo on the other side was a unmoving statue only grunting to shift about under the armor. Seeing the dire predicament at hand, the Eldar ran up to start pulling her by the collar leaving scratch marks below her.

"Ooph, gods damn it! Why is your armor so heavy!?"

"Because I can't use wraithbone plates due to being techno-heresy ," Then chuckled to cough up some more blood dripping in a line down her throat.

It was rare that Eldar ever sweats but this was one of these time. While huffing in and out air, GeGe saw the body parts come flying back together to try to reform Xin. Muscles stitch together to weave in the solid flesh, the metal bones were forcefully reconnected by the joints with unknown means as the vampire screamed in unimaginable pain.

"Come on, come on," Time was running out for GeGe as she had only got to the exit of the room when the fingers were starting to respond to commands from the brain.

"Wait a moment!" Called out Chiyo then pointing at her grenades on her belt,"Impact grenades on the wall to slow the regeneration."

"Why didn't I think of that!"

The Inquisitor bent down to pick one grenade up then pause to pick up another one just in case. Pulling the pin on one to throw it at the wall next to the body then another one. The explosions blew out a large hole to the outside and also tore down chunks of ferrocrete onto of the body to block some of the parts from reconnecting with the torso.

"Now we make hast," Genevieve said to the Sister while dragging her out of the room then sliding her down the stairway.

There was so much pain for her, the grenade exploded from the inside out sending her entire body asunder. But pain, the pain wasn't the same as death. It would take a few minutes to reform the body then to hunt down the pesky mortals. In the grand scheme of things, this wasn't taking too much of her time to kill an Inquisitor. Never the less, it was becoming more annoying with this game of feline and rodent. Then she heard a detonation unlike any grenade before, no, these were demolition charges. The very floor above her collapsed without warning, resulting in a resurgence of hammer blows of suffering on the mismatch of limbs that was the vampire.

"Send the firing orders now! Send them now!" The Inquisitor was shouting to the pair that set up the PAC.

"Yes, Sir," Kaidun said while hooking up everything onto Zau. "You good?" Asked the Vostroyan who only got a thumbs up as a reply from the psyker.

* * *

 

Deep beneath the rubble was a rebel warlord vampire that was very angry and was now drilling to dig herself out of this mess. For somebody crushed under several meters of stone slabs, she was making remarkable time getting out of it. The metal claws felt the final layer before punching through to meet the fresh air. Then her sights laid upon the clear blue sky once crawling out of the heap of debris. Although something was wrong, there was a flash of red light in the heavens. At first, just a dot then it grew exponentially.

The first small Lance battery hit right on the mark to engulf the target in a blinding red light. Surely, that would have melted the vampire along with anything below under her feet. And this was true, everything that could be boiled in Xin's body was stripped from the bones leaving behind a skeleton. The flesh and any other soft bit were roasted then torn away from the bones in the blast. The standing metal bones were all the remained of the warlord, still defying the Imperium in her dying moments. By mysterious ways did Xin screamed but she did, none who witnessed her could deny that. In fear of her somehow still living taking a Lance battery to the face, GeGe yelled,"Fire again! Order them to fire again!"

Then the voidship did comply with another shot within almost a minute to roast the same spot over again. The staggering skeleton tried to walk toward the Inquisitor but was halted by another blast disintegrating the cracked metal bones then the shard was ripped away from the body. That would turn the entire body into lifeless metal pieces when the bones fell apart as it no longer resembled a skeleton.

"What did we learn today?" The Inquisitor asked her retinue.

Jin said,"That those eye beams really hurts," holding up her bandaged hands as proof. Min didn't say a thing as she groaned laying on the dirt.

"Nyet, the surest way to deal with a vampire is to use capital voidship weaponry!" The Adept proudly stated as if it was a fact.

The Eldar gave an amusing look before she said,"I was thinking more akin to 'The best-laid plans are nothing if not for those performing it' but those answers will do."

"Celebratory Rahzvod for everybody!" The Vostroyan said with gusto and glee as she put her hands into the air.

"No thank you, I'd rather stay with tea."

"Me too," Chiyo said still stuck within her exo-suit,"I'd rather drink Tanna than that piss!"

 


End file.
